


To Die Well

by lemurfoxtrot



Series: To Die Well [1]
Category: Class (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-01-21 14:11:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12459411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemurfoxtrot/pseuds/lemurfoxtrot
Summary: Quill’s class is inspected again, only this time, it’s not a robot; it's someone who may just understand Quill a little better than she expects. Throughout the process are several fights to the death, the appearance of UNIT, some old memories that are forcibly resurfaced, and an ex-soldier who is somehow involved with it all.





	1. Chapter One: A Military Grade Inspection

**Author's Note:**

> I think the only reason I made any progress on this was because I wanted to post it on Class Appreciation Day. As it happened, I was still half an hour late because this is my first post and I kept doing the HTML thingy wrong.  
> This takes place after Brave-ish Heart but I’ve decided to ignore that Dorothea offered to help Quill with the arn for now. It will come in later, I promise. To make up for this flagrant disrespect of the Class timeline, I have tried to stay as close as possible to the true interior of Quill and Charlie’s house. A truly worthwhile trade-off, I know.
> 
> This is my first work, but hopefully not my last because I actually can't cope with only one series of Class, Anyway, I would be grateful for any feedback at all. I hope you enjoy!!

Quill was having a really shit day. There was simply no other way to put it. 

Hitting Charles, while immensely satisfying, caused so such pain that sleep was impossible. She didn’t bother returning home after storming out of Ames’ office, instead roaming the streets well into the night. It was a stupid decision in retrospect- she wouldn’t have been able to defend herself if attacked, but she also hadn’t been able to spend time around his fucking highness after coming so close to destroying the Shadowkin. 

She finally returned home in the early morning around 2am, after the cold night air failed in cutting through the pain lancing her temples. She spent the rest of the morning laying into the punching bag in the garage with as much force as she could muster, imagining it alternatively as Charles and the Shadowkin. She waited long enough to satisfy the arn that he was safe and she wasn’t neglecting her duty to protect him before storming off to school. 

She was tired, pissed- off, and ready to bite at the slightest provocation. She decided to forgo the compulsory staff meeting (as she always did) for thirty minutes of quiet in her classroom. It was therefore with deep reluctance that she registered the Headmistress waiting by her door.

“Miss Quill,” Dorothea greeted her solicitously enough, but Quill continued to stalk her way past, slamming the door to her classroom open hard enough to dent the wall. The Headmistress was lucky she hadn’t slammed it in her face with the mood she was in today. 

“Really, Miss Quill, I’m not sure there was any call for that sort of behaviour this early in the day.” 

“Bite me.” Quill replied flatly.

The Headmistress followed her into the room, closing the door gently behind her. Quill settled herself into her chair, grabbing the iPad from her bag and flicked through the screens. She was not in the mood for verbal swordplay with the infuriating woman; she was in the mood for little other than a good brawl, but the chances of that were practically non-existent. 

“What?” She snapped impatiently as the silence deepened. She wanted Dorothea out of her classroom quicker: her presence was a painful reminder of the day before and she was feeling too bruised and vulnerable to handle her. 

Of course, her feeling vulnerable meant an increase in insulting comments and violent glares. On the receiving end of the aforementioned glare, Dorothea pursued her lips as she tried to think of a way of phrasing what was to come in a way that would cause the least aggravation from Quill. 

“You’re being inspected.” Bluntness sometimes is the only way, Dorothea mused as she watched the murderous glint in Quill’s eyes burn even brighter. 

“Or rather, your class is. Obviously, the last one wasn’t exactly, ahem, an official scholastic representative” – both women paused at the mention of the previous inspector- “and this one is mandated by the government. Nothing I can do, I’m afraid. Please try to remember that before you throw a stapler at their head and graphically threaten them in front of a class of fifteen-year olds.” 

“I’ll threaten who I like,” Quill snapped back childishly. She recognised the remark wasn’t exactly the most cutting, but after her lack of control had been so clearly illustrated to her last night, she was not feeling receptive to demands regardless of how logical they were. 

Dorothea’s mouth tightened but she turned and walked away from her desk. Quill settled back in her chair, staring blankly down at the dead screen of her iPad. 

“Try to keep your hands of this one, hmm?” floated over Dorothea’s shoulder as she left. 

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Quill stared murderously at the woman sitting on the other side of the room. This one wasn’t a robot she was sure, but she still met her stare-for-stare. Considering the violence in Quill’s face, this was an impressive feat in itself. She broke her gaze occasionally to write something on her page or to walk around the students, but her grey eyes would always find Quill again. 

There was something about her though. She set Quill on edge. The way she moved, the way she held herself. Like a soldier. Quill would know, after all, but she may just be paranoid after the last one. There was no way she was going to anyone with her suspicions; she’d already had to endure some arrogant little shit ask her if she was going to throw a stapler at the newest Inspector. If only that was the worst repeatable event. 

She could feel a slight blush spreading over her cheeks at the thought of her little pas faux. It wasn’t her fault these bodies were so bloody emotional. It was just humiliating that she was so starved of contact she had snogged something even less than a human. 

She intensified her glare at the Inspector at the thought of it. The new one looked fairly more attractive though, if she ever did decide to throw herself around again. She was as tall as Quill in her high heels; her bare arms were pleasantly toned and she moved with a fluidity that hinted at some martial arts training. 

The bell broke through the silence. The air was filled with scrapes and squeals of chairs as her class hurried out before she could inflict more homework on them. She was tempted to call them all back out of spite- if she had to suffer through marking it, they had better suffer doing it- but she just couldn’t be bothered. The silly charade was wearing thin and today was just not a good day. 

Of course, in her new life, a good day was one in which she spoke to no one and successfully avoided Charles and the Bunghole squad. 

She swivelled her chair to refocus on the Inspector. Quill hoped she wasn’t expecting on talking to her, or planning on staying in the classroom for the lunch hour. 

The woman had stood up and was now looking analytically at Quill. Who returned the look, with interest. Quill noted the blush that just perceptibly lit the woman’s cheeks as she realised Quill was dragging her eyes over her athletic form. 

Quill smirked to herself. It was so easy to make humans uncomfortable. 

_Yes, definitely some military training._ She wondered how the woman had gotten into Education as the woman walked towards her. As she tucked the short brown hair behind her ears, Quill noticed an old burn scar rippling across her forearm. Quill herself had lost most of her scars in the transition into human form. She missed them. 

The woman walked right up to the edge of Quill’s desk and looked down on her, forcing Quill to look up at her to look her in the eye. Quill recognised what she was doing- attempting to establish dominance over her. Well, that was easy enough to avoid. 

She smirked to herself as she leant back in her chair and completely ignored the woman, taking a sip of her coffee and busying herself on her iPad. With cats, of course. 

The woman paused before coughing gently to get Quill’s attention. She raised her head and quirked an eyebrow superciliously at the woman, getting no small amount of pleasure from the small indicators that the woman felt ill at ease. 

_I’ve led armies, dear. Don’t try and play games with me._

“Miss Quill- Andrea, if I may-” The woman started in a business-like tone.

“You may not,” Quill interrupted coldly and caught the tiny flicker in the woman’s eye. She was not used to being defied, that was clear. 

“Miss Quill, then. I would like to speak to you about some of your teaching methods. Not to mention, the parts of the syllabus you cover- or don’t, according to my records.” The woman spoke in a business-like tone, the latter part laden with finality. Clearly this woman expected Quill to wilt under close inspection. How wrong she is.

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” (she knew she wasn’t; having spent the first period researching it) “but as an Academy, this institution is free from governmental control on the syllabus I teach, or lack of, as you put it. You may not,” she paused to accentuate her words, “question my actions. You may show yourself out,” she finished dismissively, looking back to her iPad to emphasise her words. 

When silence met her ears, Quill risked a peek upwards. If the woman was about to cry, then so help her…

But she wasn’t. She had stepped back and was staring at Quill with that cool, analytical look again, as though she was dissecting her behaviour. There was none of the fear or disgust from her colleagues and students; the woman looked practically interested, like she was a puzzle. And this put Quill on edge. 

“You’re still here?” She let the question drip with derision. 

After a beat, the woman strode out the door. When she was gone, Quill put down her iPad and rewound the conversation. It would need some more analysis before she acted. She couldn’t make the same mistakes that she had with the robot. 

It was only later, once school had ended and Quill was standing outside of her own front door listening to the sickening sounds of Charles and his friends that she realised the brunette inspector had managed to distract her for the entire day from thoughts of the Shadowkin. 

_Hmm._

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Quill walked through the door to her classroom the next day, noting with supreme annoyance the presence of the Inspector. The tall woman was standing in between the door and desk, clearly waiting for Quill to arrive. With huge effort, she forced herself not to simply turn around and walk back out again. 

“Miss Quill,” the woman greeted warmly, a sudden change from the professional, cool persona of before. “We got off on the wrong foot yesterday, and it was entirely my fault. You were right, of course; I shouldn’t have questioned your teaching methods and you are free to act however you want in your classroom. Perhaps we could start again?” 

She held her hand out to Quill, apparently taking her silence as permission to continue. “I didn’t introduce myself yesterday. I go by Caddie; it’s a nickname of sorts.”

“Caddie.” Quill let the ridiculous name hang in the air, ignoring the hand stretched towards her. 

“Short for Cadwallader.” (That’s more like it, thought Quill). “I prefer my surname,” she shrugged. “Army thing.”

Quill may find herself exasperated, annoyed and often disgusted by humans, but she couldn’t ignore a fellow warrior. She reluctantly reached out and grasped her hand; the first human whom she had touched in such a way. 

“You’re a soldier?” 

“I was. Now, I’m an Inspector,” she said simply. 

Quill uncertainly released her hand (human interactions were so annoyingly fluid); Caddie watching all the while. There was something unnerving about that perceptive gaze, nearly hidden but not quite by the friendly personality. 

Almost as though she noticed Quill’s analysis of her, Caddie changed the subject. 

“And,” she added, “as an Inspector, I think I’m qualified to say that homework you set was practically inhumane.” She gave a teasing smile. 

Quill schooled her internal amusement. _If only you knew._

“That’s because I’m not human.” Quill said seriously. "Haven’t you heard? I’m either 100% bitch or psycho. It depends who you ask.”

“I may have heard some of those names tossed around the school.” Callie said with a wry smile. 

“And yet you returned to my classroom, asking to ‘start over’.” Quill stated, not phrasing it as a question but still curious. In truth, she felt unprepared for the attentions of this stranger. Why on Earth would she seek out Quill’s company? Hadn’t observing her yesterday made it all too clear that Quill was not nearly likeable enough for friends?

“In my experience,” (Quill became aware of Caddie’s eyes dropping over her body, just as hers had done the other day), “such names usually just mean people are intimidated by powerful women.”

Was this woman _flirting_ with her? She really didn’t want to assume after the first incident but she did seem unusually interested in Quill. 

“You don’t seem intimidated,” she cocked an eyebrow at the confusing woman, genuinely interested. 

“Neither do you,” smirked Caddie. 

The response startled a smile from Quill’s lips. She liked confidence. It made the struggle for dominance so much more interesting. 

With that thought, Quill took a step into her personal space, forcing the woman to either back against the desk or move so she could get to her seat. She didn’t particularly want to sit down, but she wanted to test the nature of the encounter. There was the added bonus of getting even closer to the human. She was acutely aware that her confined bloodlust was looking for any form to escape through, and Quill battle fever was intrinsically woven in with other types of lust too. 

Caddie didn’t move, leaving the two standing very close together.The last time Quill had been this close to someone for so long had to be with the last Inspector. With that thought in mind, she let her gaze trace the human’s features. Caddie had appeared as bland as her nickname, like all the other inane humans when they first met, but Quill was becoming more and more certain it was a mask. She was to schooled, too quick to notice; her sharp gaze caught every move Quill made. 

It was only by standing this close to her that Quill could really see the intensity and life that was hidden under that mask. Caddie’s face spoke of life; of experiences, of battles lost and won. A small cluster of scars followed the line of her jaw; hey grey eyes blazed with an intensity Quill had not seen since Rhodia, had not seen in any other human. Quill’s breath caught in her throat.

“But really. What’s your history?” Caddie asked quietly. 

It took Quill a moment to understand; she had been too busy analysing the taller woman’s face. She beat down the flash of panic at being asked about a fictitious backstory she hadn’t even come up with. Instead, she cocked an eyebrow, waiting for the woman to elaborate so she didn’t give too much away. 

“You’ve had military training of some sort, I’m sure. The way you stand, the way you walk.”

“You’ve been watching me,” Quill murmured, smirking a little at the blush that spread across Caddie’s cheeks. 

“It’s hard not to,” she admitted softly. “And you’re avoiding the question.”

Without meaning to, Quill took another step closer to woman. With her heels on, they were equal height. Caddie shifted backwards against the desk.

“You’re right, I am avoiding it. Why did you become an Inspector?”

“I lost someone.” 

The answer, spoken softly into the silence between them, seemed to shock Caddie more than Quill. Watching this close, Quill could see the tiny flutter of panic at having revealed too much of herself. 

“Why did you become a teacher?” Quill knew she was trying to get the focus of her, brush past her too-truthful answer. 

The thousand generic, sarcastic retorts at the tip of Quill’s tongue had died at the flicker of pain in the other soldier’s eyes. Instead, she took a tiny step forward, swallowing. A tiny smile pricked at the corner of her mouth, more an expression of sorrow than anything. 

“I lost everyone.”

She allowed a tiny fraction of her anguish to surface on her face, to share the grief at losing comrades in battle with this soldier. They may have fought thousands of light years apart, in battles over things neither could understand, but loss united the two women. 

Caddie’s eyes widened as she took in Quill’s expression and words. She opened her mouth to speak, unconsciously moving even closer to the blonde alien. 

The bell rang. 

Their reverie broken, Caddie hastily moved away from the desk. She had to brush her body against Quill’s, mainly because Quill refused to move for that very reason. Children streamed into the classroom, and Caddie moved to her usual seat at the back of the classroom. The day continued, and the two women did not speak again. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Quill couldn’t stop thinking about the encounter with Caddie- the nickname was ridiculous, but she could respect the woman’s desire to be referred to by her chosen name. Not to mention, referring to her as the Inspector was giving her embarrassing flashbacks. She couldn't help wondering about her intentions. Quill didn't flirt with their words; they expressed interest with their fists and bodies. It wasn't her fault that her Quill instincts were taking their physical encounter as a dominance battle expressing that interest.

Thinking about her in this way was the safest way for Quill to occupy her time. The Royal Pain had his bunghole squad over for some human rite involving movies and communal sleeping, and so she had confined herself to her bedroom where there was a supply of coffee, vodka, chocolate and a notable absence of sickening children. 

She stared blankly out of the window. She wanted badly to go out- to go run, push herself as hard as she could, leave her miserable life behind- but his highness had ordered her to stay as the girls’ parents liked to know an adult was there to supervise the sleepover.

And so she drank coffee spiked with vodka and occupied herself with the conundrum of Inspection woman and stared out of the window into the street. 

What an existence. 

Perhaps she should just go to bed, try to waste some more life unconscious, not like she was missing anything –

-wait. 

What was that? 

Quill focused on the shrubbery that adorned the other side of the road. Had something moved? She let her eyes scan slowly from side to side, trying to get a feel of the deserted street. What was sending prickles up her spine? 

The curtains on the house opposite had its windows drawn. Why would they do that? Humans were silly like that sometimes, but they never drew the downstairs curtains. The leading freedom fighter of the Quill army noticed details like that. Their car was gone as well, as though they had left in a hurry this morning- or the night before. The same as the house next to it. 

She let her eyes scan the blinds in the front of the house, waiting for that tiny movement she was sure had caught her eye in the first place. Yes, there it was: someone surreptitiously glancing through the window. She _just_ caught the reflection of binocular lens. Now she knew they were there, she could see them- slight movements in the shadows of cars, someone leaning too far around the corner.

Time to act. 

She stood casually, acting as though nothing was amiss except a lack of coffee in her mug. She pulled the net curtains over the window as though it was an afterthought, snapping the light off as she left. 

Once confined in the walls of the house however, her calm façade broke and she ran into the front room where Charles and his friends were eating pizza and laughing at something Tanya had just said. The surprise had barely registered on their faces that she had actually made an appearance when she grabbed Charles’ arm and pulled him behind her. 

“We’re surrounded.” She hurried through gritted teeth. “Get upstairs and stay away from the windows.” 

The alarm on their faces- oh, if Quill survived what was coming, she would savour that look later- turned to fear as she pushed the group onto the stairs. 

“What do you mean, we’re surrounded?” choked Charlie as he let himself be manhandled into her bedroom. It was the most defensible position in the house, hence was why she had chosen it. She was loath to admit Charles and his minions into it but she would take that over being dead any day.

Quill darted forward to the window and imperceptibly moved one side so she could glance past the curtain out onto the street. At least two different units, her mind whirred furiously. They wouldn’t come through the hall: it was too narrow for anything other than one on one. Pity. 

Her eyes darted around the street, assessing escape routes, numbers, everything. The presence of binocular man meant that escape was out. The odds really weren’t great, but she smiled grimly. It would be a good fight if nothing else, and this- her against an army- well, it had been too long. 

She darted back to the frightened children hovering at the back of the room. His Royal Highness was clutching at The Boyfriend; both Ram and April were trying to stand protectively in front of the other. Ridiculous.

“Stay away from the window and door. The gun is by my bed. You know how to use it.” She ordered Charles, who for once didn’t question her. She could see April’s face was white with fear even as a Shadowkin blade formed and dissipated in her hand. 

She briefly considered the girl’s value as a fighter, but dismissed it quickly. She may have gained the abilities of the Shadowkin but she was still no hardened warrior.

“Guard the door,” she instructed her instead. 

Not to mention, Quill was looking forward to the fight far too much to share. 

“Do what you have to do.” Charles ordered her pointlessly. As if she hadn’t clearly been about to do that. Didn’t he remember her survival depended on his? Fool. 

She yanked a worn box out from under the bed, opening it to reveal a matt black breastplate that she quickly donned. She may not be on Rhodia anymore, but she was still a soldier and she would always be prepared for a fight. The breastplate had been purchased on the alien black market shortly after arriving. She did not fancy the look of those guns; the plate was strong enough to deflect light fire, but would not impede her movements. 

Finally ready, she darted through the door and shut it finally behind her, not wasting a look at the frightened huddle of children. They would either be fine, or they wouldn't. No point wasting brain power worrying about it. 

They would come through the front room; that much she was sure. It faced the street and was big enough to allow several soldiers to converge on one target. But, just to be sure, she darted forward to engage the multiple locks installed on the front door (also purchased on the alien black market). It wouldn’t do for one of them to sneak up behind her. 

All avenues secured, she finally allowed herself to push logistics from her wind, turn to the window and settle into her preferred fighting stance. There was certainly no anticipatory smile playing around the corners of her lips, oh no. Only a fool would smile in the face of violence. A fool, or a warrior. 

They would know she was ready. The window would have given them easy viewing of her rushing Charles away. Their element of surprise was completely gone. Quill wondered what they would do next. 

The question was answered for her in the next moment, as a small black object whizzed into the room, emitting several beeps before giving a bright, brilliant flash that Quill recognised from her research as a flare bomb. Unfortunately for the soldiers, enough of her Quill physiology remained that her eyes adjusted almost immediately, allowing her to see clearly the figures charging into room. 

Roughly ten figures surrounded her in a rough semi-circle. Three wore the all black, heavy duty protective wear complete with goggles, helmet and gun. The rest were in lighter clothing, a red beret with an unknown insignia in place of the protective helmet and a baton and handcuffs in place of the guns.

A stocky man in a suit strode confidently into the room. Quill could practically smell his arrogance. He stopped a few meters short of Quill, eyeing her ready stance with a curl of his lip.

“Alien,” he patronised, “We have detected the presence of a high-energy weapon in your possession. You are under arrest on suspicion of alien terrorism. Give yourself up for processing and sentencing, otherwise we will be forced to-” 

At this, he fell silent, most probably because Quill had stepped forward faster than the human eye could comprehend and smacked her fist into his face. He had then crumpled to the ground, out cold. 

His speech had been really, really, tiresome. Quill hated being thought of as a human, but calling someone ‘alien’? Even she knew that was rude. 

The soldiers around her paused as they registered the temporary loss of their commander. 

She tensed, and span to the left as one of the all-black figures released a panicky salvo of bullets. As though it was a signal to the rest of the soldiers, they launched into action, converging on Quill but mostly getting the way of each other. 

Quill noted their lack of cohesion haughtily as she gracefully dodged the jerky shooting, slipping close enough to him to bash his head against the granite worktop and knock him out cold. Her soldiers had had much better training, knowing to give each other space to fight. 

This was going to be _easy._

Quill span in with a hook kick, driving her heel into the neck of the figure closest. She blocked one kick, grabbed another leg and drove her elbow down onto the knee until something cracked. Someone grabbed her hair and dragged her over the table while another slammed a fist into her stomach; she reached up and crushed the fragile bones of soldier no. 1’s hand even as she felt a rib splinter under the soldier’s ministrations. 

She shouldn’t have, but she absolutely loved it. The pain, the adrenaline, the power ripping through her body. She relished every punch that connected with her body: every ache and pain reaffirming who she was, Quill fighter. 

Soldier no. 2 paused before launching a second punch, instead drawing a wicked-looking baton. As he whipped it around, she slammed her legs up and around his arm, effectively trapping him long enough for her to crush her hand into his throat. The added impact of her high heel into his collarbone didn’t hurt either, the surprise of puncturing his chest drawing a feral smile. 

No. 1 soldier made a futile comeback, suddenly tipping the table she was on and drawing a pair of rigid handcuffs. She was pretty sure he had the idea of trapping her underneath it but has hampered by the hand he was cradling to his chest. She rolled free of the table and flipped upright, dipping under a spinning side kick to rush against the supporting leg, felling the figure before immobilising his hands with his own cuffs. 

She dropped to the ground as a baton whipped through the air where her head had been. She swept the legs out from soldier no. 3, rising to smack his chin with a fist as he fell. 

The trouble with the arn, thought Quill idly as she moved onto no. 4, was that the rules were fairly vague. Sure, the weapons thing was mostly straightforward. But what constituted a weapon? Would slamming a door on one of these infernal insects’ heads be classified as a weapon? Her high heel hadn’t caused so much as a flicker, but was that because it hadn’t been premeditated? What about if she dropped the sofa on them? She really didn’t want to have to adopt a trial and error method to work out the answers. 

Her point was proved as she pulled the helmet backwards off soldier no. 5, cutting his windpipe off with the strap. He was one of the two wearing the thick, protective gear, which really wasn’t helping much; he choked, reaching behind him to try and wrench her head to one side long enough for her to drop her grip. She could have held on, but the arn twinged in her head, clearly thinking that the strap was too close to a weapon for her to abuse. 

The aggravated soldier massaged his throat momentarily before drawing his baton and launching himself at Quill. He whacked the rod into the meaty part of her thigh and drove an elbow into the place where her shoulder and neck met- or he tried to, anyway, as Quill slipped inside of his reach, clapping her hands over his ears with enough force to stun him. 

There was a definite longing inside her to take the fight further. Her actions, to the most point, hadn’t been too lethal, mainly because killing people with only your hands took time she didn’t have right now. 

Soldier no. 6 tried to force her to the ground by bodily grappling with her, not realising her far superior strength. His (this one was definitely a man) grasping hands on her forearm sent a bolt of pain up her right limb, apparently probing a bullet wound she hadn’t even noticed. Her annoyance at this resulted in the man sliding smoothly across the polished worktop, only for his face to come to a resounding stop against the wall. 

Soldier no. 5 got a lucky shot in her face. She paused, smiling animalistically. 

“Oh, you are _so_ going to regret that.” 

He soon became a lot better acquainted with the workings of a kettle ( _not containing boiling water, more’s the pity_.)

Quill fired her elbows into someone’s face, catching their head with her other hand as it recoiled from the impact; before they had time to recover, she smashed it against the mirror over the wall. To ensure a job well done, she rid the mantle of Charles’ annoying decorations by running their face along it. 

She dropped the limp figure, spinning to face the next opponent. To her surprise, and disappointment, the only figures left in the room were those knocked out cold lying in various positions over the kitchen. 

“Oh, come on, I know you can do better than that!” she roared. Adrenaline was coursing through her body: this was the most alive she had felt since arriving on Earth, the pleasure of a simple fight (possibly to the death) far surpassing the pain involved with fighting the Shadowkin. 

By her estimation, she had decimated most if not all of the two ground units, but the arrogant fool who appeared to be the leader was no longer lying in a puddle on the floor. 

She paused, cocking her head to listen for any sound of a surprise attack. Quill senses were far advanced than humans, and she was well versed in using them in a battle.

A quiet beep, harsh breathing. Low murmurs. A gun cocking. 

The street- no, not that far. Probably just by the low wall that constituted the edge of the property. 

She had an idea. It was reckless and dangerous and if she’d been at home she would never have hesitated. As it happened, she really wasn’t hesitating now. 

Quill recognised that her bloodlust was probably seriously affecting her rationale. Unfortunately, she couldn’t really make herself care that much. The adrenaline rollicking through her was pushing to into the final confrontation: into a victory, any victory. 

She turned to rush up the stairs only to find the entirety of the bunghole squad staring at her in utter horror. She enjoyed the look so much she forgot to reprimand them for ignoring her orders to remain in her room. It was good for them to be reminded of what she could do if she wanted to, Charles especially. 

Speaking of, he probably hadn’t seen her fight like that before. The Rhodian prince hadn’t exactly been on the front lines of the conflict and even then, weapons had been used. What had just gone down was much more like the Quill fights from her childhood (happy days).

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Ram stared at the alien, who was barely breathing hard. 

Charles swallowed visibly before stepping forward. “Are we safe?”

She ignored his question, only slightly limping through the children. She couldn’t help smirking as Peg-Leg stumbled away from her so fast he nearly fell over. As she had predicted, they followed her, from a safe distance away, as she walked back to her room. 

Standing to the side of the window, she could just detect an armed soldier standing a meter from her front door, gun trained on the door. The man in charge, barely recognisable with half his face swollen and bruised, was on the phone with a final armed figure by his side. 

This was going to be so, _so_ fun. 

She slid the window up carefully, not disrupting the gauze curtain. _Thank the goddess it was a windless day._

“Quill! I asked you, are we safe yet?” Charles snapped at her. 

She turned to the whiny boy still waiting for an answer. 

“With me?” She asked, purposefully misunderstanding. 

“Never.” 

She flashed a grin at his spluttering- as part of the arn, she could not lie to him- before ripping the curtain away and jumping lightly forward through the open window. She could just hear the gasps behind her as she dropped, gentle as a cat, onto the soldier below who had just started to cautiously venture forward. 

Landing on his shoulders, they both toppled to the ground. She tightened her legs around his neck in a choke hold, ignoring the scratches his grasping figures caused on her shins. His fight only made him run out of air quicker, and he was soon lying unconscious. Quill got to her feet coolly, feeling her heart pounding inside her chest. Just beyond the low wall, the man was scrambling backwards to put some distance in between them.

The question was whether to get the immediate satisfaction of snapping his neck, or hold out and torture him for information. Quill wasn’t exactly a delayed gratification person, but the bullet wound in her upper arm was holding out for inflicting a whole lotta pain. On the other hand, today had to be the most enjoyable day since she’d arrived on the godforsaken planet. 

The final soldier interrupted her musings by stepping forward to meet her. There was something familiar with the way the soldier walked towards her. Quill couldn’t put her finger on it. 

“Really? I mean, really? I just obliterated your squad in what, five minutes? And now you think you’ll take me on all alone?”.

In response, the figure reached up to pull the anonymous goggles off their face. 

“Oh, you are _fucking_ kidding me.” Quill swore emphatically as she stared at the woman in front of her: the woman, who, for the last week, had been sitting in her classes, observing. 

“Miss Quill.” Caddie’s greeting sounded rather pained. 

“What is it with the _fucking Inspectors_?!” Quill’s voice rose to a shriek. Good god, she was going to _murder_ Dorothea Ames if this had anything to do with her. 

Caddie had begun speaking again.

Quill tuned out as a car raced down the deserted street to stop by the man, who collapsed into the back. No bloody way was he escaping before she had her answers. 

But first, she had to sort out the woman standing in front of her, who was still talking.” … not the plan, we just need you to come with us, didn’t want…”

“Oh, shut up,” snarled Quill as she moved to smack her fist against that pretty face. Surprisingly enough, the woman dodged her and sent her own into Quill’s already damaged ribs. 

_Interesting._

The two began to spar in earnest, dodging and spinning around each other. Quill had to hand it to the human: she was skilled, for her kind at least. But Quill’s experience was slowly defining her as the superior fighter, despite the woman’s use of the debilitating baton, and it was less than two minutes from the first punch that Quill had her in a choke hold. 

Funny, she had won the fight but a certain disappointment ebbed in her mind. This time, she definitely had the option to just twist her grip, and satisfy the bloodlust inside her. But Caddie had impressed her, and right now her curiosity about the whole goddam situation was more pressing. 

Quill tightened her choke, pressing Caddie’s body tight against her own. The taller woman scrabbled against her body and Quill opened her mouth to tell her that-

Pain streamed through her body. Her muscles went into spasms and her body locked up. She was no longer holding the soldier, but she didn’t care. Her view of the street was flickering, replacing suburban Shoreditch with a gleaming throne room and a sanctimonious bitch, gloating down on her. Her shock at the change of scenery was swept away by the emotions of the remembered scene: the wave of hatred at the Rhodian Queen's face; the despair at knowing her lover was dead; the horror at her future in captivity; the worry over her officers. 

She fell to her knees and felt the grit of the street, jarring her out of the hallucination. She focused on this sensation as she struggled to remain out of her memories, pushing herself up unsteadily.

“Jesus, Quill.” Caddie said, startled. “Stay down. You don’t want to feel this again.”

She sounded slightly shocked, and Quill felt a grim sense of satisfaction as she pushed herself back into her guard. “You’ll have to try harder than that,” she snarled. 

She jabbed at the taller woman’s head but the her body thought it was as injured as she had been in the memory, making her slow; Caddie grabbed her arm and yanked it past her, sending Quill forward. As she struggled to regain her footing, Caddie swung her arm under and up, jabbing the lethal black box into her ribs. 

This time, Quill got lost in her mind. 

_She felt the pain; saw the white sparks in front of her eyes and tasted the metallic blood of a bitten tongue. But instead of the throne room, she was in a darkened cell with freezing chains encircling her arms. The knowledge that she was being forced to relive the memory died instantly. Above the pounding of blood in her ears, a thin scream echoed closer as someone was forcibly dragged by her cell. She bit down on the scream building in her throat, knowing the guards were only bringing their prisoner by her to further torture her. Psychological punishment; their specialty._

_Her resolve disappeared as the hoarse voice replaced its wordless cry with her name. It was her best lieutenant and her least despised nest-mate, Va'kath. She launched herself at the door, a grunt forced from her throat as the chains stopped her. She nearly dislocated her shoulder that first time, but she threw herself again and again until she couldn't lift her arms at all. The chains were slick with her blood from the cuffs cruelly forcing her quill's backwards, driving them from her skin._

_The screams stopped, and Quill stilled in the dark. She strained every sense she had, trying to push past the throb of her heartbeat in her ears. Every second that the silence continued was a physical load on her. Suddenly, a scream rang out, but no longer one driven by pain. The anguish in the cry cut into Quill's heart, and she sank to the floor of her cell. A far off voice commanded "quiet", and Va'kath's cry died instantly, but Quill raised her head and howled her own pain back out. She cried for her lieutenant, whose will she knew had just been taken and who she had sworn to protect. The few Quill soldiers in cells near her heard the cry of their General and joined their voices. The prisoners voiced their sorrow, mourning the loss of one of their best leaders with the wordless howl Va'kath could no longer utter._

She staggered and suddenly found herself kneeling on the ground, regaining control of her senses just in time to hear the sound of cuffs behind her back, the heavy feel mimicking the chains she had felt only seconds ago. She was startled by the feeling in her arms.

She twisted and writhed desperately, but three soldiers decked out in the heavy duty protective gear grabbed her restrained arms and began to move her towards the van.

Every atom of her being was fighting against going through those looming doors. The memories stirred up by the black box transformed the van into the Rhodian criminal transportation pods. Her vision flickered: gone was the empty London street, instead all she could see was bodies of her fallen comrades. The body of her lover, one hand still stretched out towards her. 

An animalistic scream tore from her throat and she began to fight, as she hard as she had when the Rhodian army took her away. The three soldiers were clearly surprised by the vengeance she was fighting them, grunting with the effort of keeping her contained. 

Caddie, who had been walking towards the house, turned around reluctantly and approached Quill. She lashed out with her legs, trying to knock her down but the soldier easily landed the black box onto her next one last time.

“I’m sorry, Quill. You'll just have to ride it out now." She did sound genuinely saddened, but Quill really wasn’t in the mood to appreciate a conflicted soldier.

As white seared across her vision, and scenes of death began to flicker in front of her eyes, one last thought echoed across her mind. 

_You didn’t win then. Why ever did you think you could win now?_


	2. Chapter Two: Memory Lane and Other Unpleasant Destinations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A rather uncomfortable drive, involving Quill regaining consciousness and everyone wishing she hadn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has taken soooo long for the next chapter to come out. Hopefully will be able to post the next one much more speedily! In the meantime, enjoy :)

“Oh  _shit.”_

Tanya, and the rest of the Bunghole Defence Squad watched as Miss Quill’s body was carried into a colossal black truck, which Tanya’s gaming mind was informing her as INKA’s Huron APC.

 “She’s unconscious,” said Tanya. “Right?” she asked, as the horrified silence lengthened.

 “She is.” Charlie confirmed unenthusiastically next to her. “I would be able to tell if she wasn’t.”

 “How?” asked April.

 Charlie tapped his head unhappily. “Telepathically linked to the arn, remember?”

 Tanya pursued her lips at the mention of Quill’s slavery.

 “Look, you may not like it,” Charlie retorted hotly, “but at least we know she’s alive. Besides, I think we have slightly bigger issues right now.”

 “Charlie’s right.” Matteusz weighed in. Tanya swung round to give him a betrayed glare, but he gestured out of the window. “There are many soldiers out there."

 Tanya hesitantly stepped closer to the open window, before realising she was standing in full view of the figures outside. She ducked to one side, where Ram was staring wordlessly out of the window. The single truck that Quill had been moved into was no longer alone.

 “What’s going on?” Charlie asked worriedly, the heat gone from his voice. He seemed scared to get too close of the window.

 “Two more trucks and a couple of other vehicles, both nothing like the first one. There’s loads of soldiers in the red berets, like from downstairs, and more people in hazmat suits are arriving. And some paramedic types I think. They’re pulling people from the front room-”

 “What do we do?” Ram interrupted her litany, a note of desperation in his voice. When no one responded, he turned from the window to yell at Charlie. “Oi! You’re the alien Prince! That’s your protector or guardian or whatever down there. Whatever is happening is because of  _you_. What do we do?”

 “Ram.” April said, startled. “It’s not Charlie’s fault.”

 Charlie had wilted under the force of Ram’s panic. There was a blank look in his eyes, like he had retreated into himself. “I don’t know what to do,” he whispered, lost.

 “Should I call the Shadowkin?” April asked the group, blades forming in her hands as she spoke. “Or could we try and contact the Doctor?”

 Matteusz stepped forward. “No Shadowkin. We do not know if they are good or bad. They have guns but did not use them against Miss Quill and she is still alive.”

 April opened her mouth to reply; a bang deeper in the house startled her into silence. The five teenagers automatically huddled together, facing the door. April stepped to the front of the group, to the relief of Tanya, who couldn’t help admiring the older girl.

 Matteusz grabbed April’s arm and shook his head, to Tanya’s dismay.

 “No blades. We do not want to give them knowledge against us.”

 It was a good point, but Shadowkin blades had been so much more reassuring than logic.

 The sounds deep in the house got louder and closer. Tanya found herself gripping April’s now empty hand; she could hear Ram muttering frantically to himself under his breath.

 A creak on the stairs was followed by a beat of silence, and then the door was gently pushed open.

 A soldier in black fatigues stood in the door, a gun drawn right at the group. Tanya found she couldn’t breathe as her gaze flickered from the bruised face of the soldier to the imposing gun.

 The woman examined them for a moment, and then holstered the gun in a fluid moment and held her hands out in a calming gesture.

 “Please don’t be alarmed. I’m Agent Cadwallader, with UNIT.”

 _Oh God, this isn’t because I tried to hack them, is it?,_ Tanya internally pled.

 “Can you place the gun on the bed, please, Mr. Smith,” she asked calmly. Charlie did as he was asked, trembling slightly before scuttling back to the group of teenagers.

 There was something familiar about the tall, dark woman framed by the door.

 “April, Tanya, Ram, Matteusz, Charles.” She looked at each person as she spoke their names. Her familiarity creeped Tanya out to the nth degree. She had  _almost_  placed her face.

 “You might recognise me from Coal Hill…”

 “You’re the Inspector!” said Tanya, startled. The woman inclined her head.

 “Yes, I have been inspecting Miss Quill’s classes for the past few days.”

 “What have you done to Quill?” asked Charlie through gritted teeth.

 “I am sorry we had to take such extreme action.” She did sound genuinely regretful. “If she had surrendered immediately, we could have avoided the situation entirely.”

 “Surrender? We’ve done nothing wrong!” cried Charlie.

 “That remains to be determined, Charles.” There was definitely a note of apology in her voice, Tanya thought hopefully. “You have a significant weapon within your possession and our head of Alien Terrorism believed the two of you had plans to detonate it.”

_A weapon? Not the Cabinet?_

 Most likely reaching the same conclusions as Tanya, Charles began imitating a dying goldfish next to her.

 “Charles Smith,” she moved slowly into the room, “you are under arrest on suspicion of planning to commit terrorist activity. You are also under arrest for residing on this planet without registering with the relevant authorities and undergoing the induction training for life amongst humans.”

 “Tanya Adeola, Ram Singh, April Maclean, Matteusz Andrzejewski. You are under arrest on suspicion of abetting unregistered aliens with intent to commit crimes against humanity.”

 Any hope that Agent Cadwallader would be helpful or sympathetic to them died in Tanya’s mind.

 Behind her, Tana could hear Ram whispering, “you’re fucking kidding me.”

 “You cannot just arrest us,” said Matteusz.

 “We are an international, governmentally recognized organisation, higher than both the Police and Secret Services of all countries,” she disagreed gently.

 “However,” her voice got fractionally warmer, “I understand you must be worried. I want to reassure you all that this is just a formality.” She looked deep into each of their eyes as she spoke, and despite the gun still at her waist, Tanya did feel slightly reassured. “You do not need to be worried,” she reiterated, nodding encouragingly.

 “I insist that you call Ms. Ames and explain the situation to her, so that someone is aware of your whereabouts.”

 “Ms. Ames?” Tanya asked startled. “Why her? Why not our parents?”

 “I believe Ms. Ames is the only one who knows of your involvement with aliens, is she not?”

 Tanya visualised calling her mum to tell her she was being arrested by UNIT for hanging out with an alien.

 A  _male_ alien.

 “Ms. Ames it is.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_

 

April left a detailed message on Ms. Ames’ school number, explaining the situation. It was the best they could do, but Tanya really didn’t feel any safer.

 “I really don’t need to handcuff you, do I?” said Agent Cadwallader in a what sounded like a joke. Tanya had quite possibly never felt less like joking, with the possible exception of seeing the Headteacher skinned by an alien gragon.

Tanya tried really hard to ignore the way every other person there left a three-meter separation distance from them as they left the house. She distinctly felt like she had a contagious disease.

They climbed into the back of the immense truck, the only sound being Quill’s jerky murmurings and harsh breathing. In all honestly, she was just relieved that the blonde alien was actually breathing. Her body had looked really rather dead as it was carried away.

Ram collapsed onto the benches running down the sides of the vehicle and buried his head in his hands. To Tanya’s dismay, the agent walked through them all to crouch by Quill. She had been waiting for privacy before speaking to her friends about what in God’s name was going on.

“What evidence could you possibly have that would make you suspect terrorism?” Charlie shot at her from his position by the doors, ready to take flight at any moment.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss the case, or answer any more questions,” she replied absentmindedly as she checked over Quill. Tanya couldn’t help be relieved that someone competent was doing it.

 “Why are you even here?” Ram rounded on her aggressively.

 “Tanya is not technically an adult, and as your guardian is currently unconscious...”

 “Thanks to you,” Matteusz mumbled.

 “…an appropriate adult must supervise transportation.”

 “I’m not a baby,” Tanya said petulantly. “I don’t need to be looking after.”

 “According to the law, you do,” Cadwallader replied.

 “You talk about the law, but I’ve never heard of UNIT, nor heard of any laws pertaining to alien relations,” April started.

 Tanya opened her mouth to jump in and support her friend, but Cadwallader beat them both.

 “I’m not at liberty to discuss details of the case with you without further representation present.”

 “But it’s not even about the case; we just want to know what’s going on!” Tanya cried in exasperation.

 But the soldier refused to speak anymore, moving away to key some numbers into a pad by the door and ignoring the questions the group threw at her. Giving up on answers, Charlie and Matteusz moved to join the others at the furthest end of the vehicle in some semblance on privacy. April, imitating Cadwallader, crouched down to check on Miss Quill.

 “Shit. She looks like death.” Tanya couldn’t hide the horror in her voice at seeing Miss Quill, always so strong and aggressive, in such a vulnerable state.

 Quill’s breathing was harsh and jagged; rasping through her throat as though to draw a breath was a battle. Sweat was beading on her flushed face, and Tanya could see her eyes rolling wildly behind her eyelids. The only sounds in the cavernous vehicle were the guttural utterances clawing through her clenched jaw. She had never seen the alien show any emotion like this: Quill seemed to exist in a perpetually pissed-off cloud of sarcasm and anger. It was the scariest part of the situation.

 “She’s got some pretty severe burns, probably from the taser- thing,” April said calmly, her voice not really expressing the violence of those purple-black blooms edging up her neck.

 “She was very strong,” Matteusz said, “to keep fighting though it.”

 They all paused a moment at the memory of watching Quill fight. The words that jumped to mind were  _awesome_  and  _fucking terrifying._  They had known  _in theory_  that their teacher had once been a leading freedom fighter/terrorist, but there was something about seeing her destructive power, even when limited to only her fists, that inspired a little bit of terror in you.

 “Yeah, well she probably wasn’t looking forward to more imprisonment,” muttered Tanya as she pulled out of her thoughts. “All else I can see is a few bruises. I just don’t understand why she looks so  _ill._ ”

 She looked at Charlie, but he didn’t appear to have heard anything she said. “Some protector,” he muttered bitterly. Tanya could’ve kicked him.

 “You heard the agent.” Ram’s voice came from behind them. “ _Terrorism._ We knew she hated us; looks like she was going to do something about it.”

 April was shaking her head before Ram had even finished. “She couldn’t do anything, even if she wanted to. This is just a misunderstanding.”

 She turned to Charlie, who looked unconvinced. “Right, Charlie?”

 “…right,” he said reluctantly.

 “What did you do to her?” Matteusz turned to the soldier accusingly. The woman had been observing their conversation with bright eyes, following each word. At his question, she schooled her expression.

 “I’m not at liberty-”

 “We know you’re not at liberty to discuss the case; we just want to know whether she is going to live or not!” The passion that burst from Charles surprised Tanya. After all, there was no lost love between the two aliens.

 Cadwallader pursed her lips. “She’ll survive,” she reassured. “She’s just unconscious.” The glares on the group prompted her expand on her sentence.

 “The little we know of Quill physiology indicated they could withstand most non-lethal human technologies. We didn’t want to experiment and potentially permanently injure anyone. We used a piece of alien technology that had been deemed safe for use against non-human lifeforms.”

 “But what did it do?” April asked, horrified. “She looks like she’s going to die.”

 “As far as we can tell, it traps someone in particularly powerful or emotive memories, rendering them unconscious without running the risk of permanent damage. It has worked the same on every species tested against.”

 Shit. From what little Charlie and Quill had revealed about their past lives, Quill had a lot of ‘powerful or emotive memories’. Tanya took a subtle step back from Quill in case she woke up unexpectedly.

 “It’s only supposed to last for a few minutes; long enough for us to restrain the unruly alien. Miss Quill showed unrivalled recovery time, and so I believe it acted as a cumulative effect. By my calculations, she should recover within half an hour to an hour.”

 “You use -this- to control people? That  _cannot_  be right.” Tanya said outraged.

 Cadwallader’s eye twitched. “It is the only technique we have so far that effectively immobilises any alien long enough to subdue them. It was this, or use dangerously high voltage shock guns. And in fairness, I have never seen such adverse effects as this. But she  _will_  be fine once she wakes up.”

 In Tanya’s opinion, the woman sounded like she was trying to convince herself in that last sentence.

 A shudder went through the truck and Ram fell against the side, sinking into sitting on the bench again. Tanya was reluctant to sit, but she really couldn’t see what else she could do. They tossed around ideas on what would happen to them, but stopped when talking about it made them more scared.

 She avoided mentioning the Cabinet. Ram appeared to favour the  _Miss-Quill-is-a-terrorist_ theory so much he hadn’t even considered what she had first suspected. It seemed to be the only thing that could fit the description of a powerful weapon, but there was no point handing their arrestors information they didn’t already have.

 Ram and April sat together, clutching hands tightly. Tanya couldn’t help eyeing them jealously; April, perhaps sensing this, sent her periodic reassuring looks. She didn’t  _like_ either of them like that, but she wanted someone to rely on as they relied on each other.

 Charlie was huddled at the far end of the truck with Matteusz’s arm wrapped around his shoulders. The pose looked casual, but Tanya could see the intensity that the two were clutching at each other.

 Tanya busied herself with watching Miss Quill; counting her breaths to make sure she hadn’t stopped. Casting a glance around the rest of the truck, Tanya noticed the soldier also watching Quill with a rather concerned look on her face. While the worry wasn’t surprising- Quill really looked bad- there was a mixture of guilt, fear and something gentler in her look. Tanya couldn’t name the emotion in her gaze.

 The truck was quiet, only soft murmurings between the couples gentling the hush, when Quill broke the silence. For a moment, Tanya thought she had awoken, but her body slumped back limply. Whatever she had said, it was certainly not English, and the pain in her voice made Tanya suspect she was speaking in her mother tongue.

 Tanya looked down at Charlie, whose gaze had fallen from the blonde alien to his feet.

 “Do you know what she said?” she asked softly. In her peripheral vision, she could see Ram and April turn towards him. Cadwallader went still.

 Charlie paused, swallowing.

 “She said…” His voice broke, before he gathered himself. “The name of her partner. He died in the battle she was captured in, I heard.”

 Matteusz’s hand, which had been rubbing circles on Charlie’s back, faltered and stopped as the implications of Charlie’s statement was felt.

_Died. Was killed._

 Tanya felt sick to her stomach, and she turned from the prince before she did something she couldn’t take back. Hearing the pain in Quill’s voice made her appreciate just how much she must hate the prince, how much his forces had taken from her.

 In the deadly hush that followed Charlie’s statement, Quill’s guttural murmurings and cries seemed amplified. Each one sent a lance through Tanya. Quill’s surly exterior had been so effective that none of them had barely guessed at the pain she carried within her; pain that Tanya hadn’t seen a single hint off until Quill was forced to relive it.

 The group didn’t speak until Quill awoke, half an hour later.

 She came to with blood in her mouth and the screams of dead soldiers in her ears.

 

-_-_-_-_-_

 

Caddie felt like absolute shite as she shocked the blonde alien for a third time. She hadn’t actually been on the receiving end of it before, but those who had described it painfully enough. And as the alien’s eyes rolled into her head, all Caddie could think of was the pain in her voice when Quill had said, “I lost everyone”.

“Never seen someone stand up that long to the DMI.” Kingston joined her to watch the Quill fighter be loaded into the truck.

"You know I really hate using it.”

 “Ah, but orders are orders, ma chere.” He draped a friendly arm around her shoulders and began steering her towards the house. “And if anyone deserves it, I would have thought the alien that takes out about ten of your soldiers would.”

 “You weren’t watching closely enough,” she informed him. “Nothing lethal, although Davies is going to be so pissed that she smacked his pretty-boy face.”

 Kingston gave a rumbling laugh. “He will not live that one down quickly. Some Head of Alien Terrorism.” They shared a look. Davies’ promotion had been thoroughly questionable, in Caddie’s opinion.

 “It-she- got you pretty good too. You’ll be inundated with partners at training now they’ve witnessed the invincible Cadwallader be nearly defeated.”

 “Obviously, I let that happen,” she replied in joke indignation. Although Kingston was right about training.

 “She  _was_  pretty good, in all fairness,” she conceded. “Like, seriously good. Thought for a moment I wouldn’t get to the DMI in time before I blacked out.” She massaged her neck gently.

 “You could have zapped her straight from the start,” Kingston pointed out carefully.

 “I wanted to see how good she was. We have so little records of the Quill; practically all we know is that they are exceedingly skilled fighters. It was in the name of science.”

 He gave her a disbelieving look but followed it with, “you are the boss.”

 “And speaking of your new job,” he nudged her gently, “you have a job to do that don’t involve brawling in the street.” He nodded significantly at the open window. A figure darted away to the side as they watched.

 “Still can’t believe James is making us arrest  _children.”_

 “Technically, most of them are adults now.”

 “ _Technically,_ ” she mimicked him, “all of them are still in education.”

 “ _Technically_ , it’s your job and unless you want Gaddings to find them first…”

 “He wouldn’t dare,” she replied, feeling her lips twitching into a smile. Gadding was a little terrified of her after they had gone through the training process together.

 “Anyway, you’ve seen Davies’ evidence. It’s bull. Energy readings and alien stereotypes do not a terrorist make. Yes, there’s probably a weapon,” she conceded, “but he has no indication whatsoever that these aliens are going to use it.”

 “Ma chere, this is where you come in, is it not? New Head of Alien Interaction?” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Protecting aliens from humanity, rather than humanity than aliens.” She laughed and shoved him at his ridiculous army sergeant imitation, before turning to face the masses.

 “Okay, everyone,” she raised her voice to address the various UNIT officers, who immediately fell silent. “We know there is still one alien in the premises, as well as four humans. Intelligence indicates that the Rhodian is nowhere near as offensive as the Quill, but be ready in case he reacts badly. Hopefully, Kingston and I will be able to take care of them; you guys wait ‘til the house is clear, and then begin location and extraction of the weapon.”

She nodded, and the group returned to their activities.

“Is that really wise?” The delicate words slithered from behind Caddie. “These ah,  _assortment_ , are being arrested on suspicion of terrorism. We wouldn’t want to lose our head of Alien Interaction so soon into her new job, would we?”

 “Didn’t know you cared so much, Campbell,” Caddie didn’t bother to turn around.

 “Personally, if it were me…” he began again, but Caddie cut him off.

 “Not to be rude, Campbell,” she said shortly, “but it isn’t your job. I didn’t ask for your input, because I don’t need your input.”

 She was not in the mood to pussyfoot around some guy who didn’t think she was good enough. She didn’t know if it was her heritage or her gender he didn’t like, and she didn’t care.

 “You ready?” she asked Kingston, ignoring Campbell’s insulted snort. He nodded, and fell back to let her take point.

 Caddie couldn’t help marvelling once again at the blonde alien’s fighting prowess as they stepped through the rubble that once was the living room.

 Kingston whistled as they passed through the window into the house, where medical personnel were still tending to unconscious soldiers. They were going to be incredibly pissed when they realised that ten of them hadn’t been able to take down one alien.

 Caddie might have been annoyed herself, but she couldn’t help respect the alien’s fight power. And the fact she had (mostly) avoided causing any serious damage was appreciated.

 The two gently climbed the stairs, guns drawn in case of nasty surprises. Caddie knew the children from her stint undercover at the school, and she was sure all of them would be willing to talk first, but there was no point taking chances.

 She gently pushed the door open to the room Quill had jumped down from. The teenagers were huddled in a protective group, the Rhodian alien holding a gun loosely. They all looked absolutely terrified out of their minds.

 Hmm… that gun didn’t look nearly powerful enough to be the weapon emitting so much energy. Something else then. But first, she needed to deal with the nervous kids.

 She holstered her gun immediately. The teenagers had been watching the fighting and now they were surrounded by soldiers; more fear at this point would be very counter-productive. She held her arms out in a calming gesture, wincing slightly as her bruises from the fight began to make themselves known.

 “Please don’t be alarmed. I’m Agent Cadwallader, with UNIT.”

 _Seriously?_  She asked herself internally.  _Don’t be alarmed? Yeah, that’ll do it, I’m sure_.

 “Can you place the gun on the bed, please, Mr. Smith,” she asked calmly. Ha paused for a moment.  _Don’t make this any more difficult._ Luckily, after that beat he did as he was asked, trembling slightly before scuttling back to the group of teenagers.

 “April, Tanya, Ram, Matteusz, Charles.” She looked into each teenager’s face as she said their name. They clearly didn’t recognize her, despite seeing her only hours earlier at the school.

 “You might recognize me from Coal Hill…” she hinted. A familiar face would be reassuring.

 “You’re the Inspector,” burst out Tanya. She was the youngest one, put forward several years for her brains. Clearly not an unfounded move.

 “Yes,” she confirmed. “I have been inspecting Miss Quill’s classes for the past few days.”

 “What have you done to Quill?” The Rhodian spoke through gritted teeth.

 She eyed him curiously. She still didn’t understand the partnership between the two aliens. They had co-inhabited a planet, suggesting they might be allies, but from her observations at the school, their relationship bordered on severe dislike. Still, Miss Quill’s actions had all been done to protect the boy, almost exclusively, and he seemed concerned now.

 “I’m sorry we had to take such extreme action.” She winced internally at her weak slip into the plural ‘we’.

_‘We’ did nothing; you’re the one who zapped her into her worst memories._

 “If she had surrendered immediately, we could have avoided the situation entirely.”

 That much was true, although Davies’ tactic of filling the house with soldiers had never been going to work (in her opinion). Their scanty info indicated that not only that the Quill race were infamous for their hand to hand fighting ability, but also that the woman who now went by her race’s name was the leader of their army. How else would such a person react to an intimidation technique?

 “Surrender? We’ve done nothing wrong!” The Rhodian was speaking again. He didn’t sound like he was lying.

 “That remains to be determined, Charles. You have a significant weapon within your possession and our head of Alien Terrorism believed the two of you had plans to detonate it.”

 She carefully watched his face as her words sank in. She was sure the surprise on his face was legitimate. It only confirmed her opinion that the arrest of both aliens was unfounded. Still, she had a job to do.

 “Charles Smith,” she spoke gently, “you are under arrest on suspicion of planning to commit terrorist activity. You are also under arrest for residing on this planet without registering with the relevant authorities and undergoing the induction training for life amongst humans.”

 “Tanya Adeola, Ram Singh, April Maclean, Matteusz Andrzejewski. You are under arrest on suspicion of abetting unregistered aliens with intent to commit crimes against humanity.”

 Matteusz, who had been silent until that point, spoke up. “You cannot just arrest us.”

 “We are an international, governmentally recognized organisation, higher than both the Police and Secret Services of all countries.”

 Shit, that had been supposed to reassure them it was all legal and above board. They looked even more worried than before.

 “However,” she tried again, “I understand you must be worried. I want to reassure you all that this is just a formality. You do not need to be worried,” she reiterated.

 “In fact, I insist that you call Ms. Ames and explain the situation to her, so that someone is aware of your whereabouts.”

 “Ms. Ames?” Tanya asked startled. “Why her? Why not our parents?”

 Caddie briefly ran over the rather complex relationship UNIT had with Ms. Ames and the Governors in her mind, before going for the much simpler explanation.

 “I believe Ms. Ames is the only one who knows of your involvement with aliens, is she not?”

 Caddie was rather impressed with the way that April concisely explained the events in a message for Ms. Ames.

 She indicated that they follow her, nodding to Kingston as they passed him hiding in the hallway.

 “I really don’t need to handcuff you, do I?” she teased as they walked through the house. One glance at their ashen faces made her want to hit herself. These kids really weren’t in the joking mood. Kingston shook his head fondly at her from the rear of the trail of teenagers.

 As they walked out of the house, he gave a signal and the SOCOs began to descend with their instruments. Caddie indicated the truck- their finest armoured people/alien carrier- that held Miss Quill, and let them climb aboard.

 “Kingston. There’s a gun in the bedroom we left, but I’m sure that wasn’t the weapon emitting the energy. Let them know, will you? I gotta get on with these guys.”

 “Sure,” he replied as she climbed into the truck, closing the door at her nod.

 She immediately checked on Quill’s vitals. Caddie actually hadn’t seen anyone look so bad after being on the receiving end of what Kingston had termed the “zapper” and UNIT the “Debilitating Memory Inducer”.

 She checked her pulse; it was way too fast, and jumping erratically, but as they didn’t have a baseline for Quill, she didn’t know how much was because of her treatment. Her breathing, however, was surely much too harsh and irregular.

 She arranged the prone form into the recovery position and sat on the bench directly next to her. Her guilt was worsening by how badly the alien was taking it. She had only spoken to the woman briefly over the past few days, but fuck it if she didn’t find something appealing in the woman. Her clear disregard for red tape and expectations was something Caddie found intensely appealing. Not to mention, she was hella powerful. Never a bad thing.

 Her internal monologue was interrupted by the other alien, Charles.

 “What evidence could you possibly have that would make you suspect terrorism?” he questioned her authoritatively.

 She couldn’t help taking an immediate dislike to his tone. He expected answers from her, and she was not going to give them to him.  

 “I’m not at liberty to discuss the case, or answer any more questions.”

 She ignored the annoyance radiating from the posturing boy in favour of checking the health of the intriguing teacher.

 “Why are you even  _here_?” Ram rounded on her aggressively.

 She glanced up from the Quill fighter to see the entire group of teenagers staring down at her.

 “Tanya is not technically an adult, and as your guardian is currently unconscious...”

 “Thanks to you,” Matteusz helpfully pointed out. She refrained from glaring at him.

 “…an appropriate adult must supervise transportation.”

 “I’m not a baby,” Tanya said petulantly. “I don’t need to be looking after.”

 “According to the law, you do,” Caddie responded wearily.

 “You talk about the law, but I’ve never heard of UNIT, nor heard of any laws pertaining to alien relations,” April probed perceptively.

 “I’m not at liberty to discuss details of the case with you without further representation present.” Caddie informed them reluctantly. She didn’t want to make them any more scared, but her role here was to supervise a minor, not as head of Alien Interaction.

 “But it’s not even about the case; we just want to know what’s going on!” Tanya cried in exasperation.

 Caddie felt torn; she wanted to help the kids, but Davies would be very pissed if she started half-arsed explanations, and he already felt threatened by her position. Instead, she just shook her head and moved away from the Quill, going to the keypad on the doors and keying in the necessary security protocols for alien transportation.

 Once that was done, and the truck started rumbling out, she sat on the far bench to observe the group closely. She really wanted to understand the group dynamics more, especially between the Quill and Rhodian.

 They were doing their own medical inventory, which Caddie approved of. Take care of your own. But then the Rhodian said something interesting.

 “Some protector.”

 So the blonde’s role was as a bodyguard type? That really didn’t seem to fit with what she had observed. The alien physics teacher seemed to severely dislike the Rhodian.

 Ram seemed certain that the woman was to do with the terrorism accusations; Charles seemed like he wanted to believe it, but couldn’t. Caddie’s confusion increased as he confirmed that the other alien couldn’t physically commit those attacks.

 “What did you do to her?” Matteusz’s question interrupted her ponderings.

 “I’m not at liberty-”

 “We know you’re not at liberty to discuss the case; we just want to know whether she is going to live or not!” Caddie tensed in case the Rhodian reacted like the Quill had, but he seemed content to express his emotion verbally.

 “She’ll survive. She’s just unconscious.”  _I hope._

 The group continued to stare at her, and even she had to admit it was a pretty shit response. Her eyes were drawn to April’s body language. She was holding her arms like she was familiar with both fighting and weapon forms. Before the silence got too long, she expanded on her answer.

 “The little we know of Quill physiology indicated they could withstand most non-lethal human technologies. We didn’t want to experiment and potentially permanently injure anyone. We used a piece of alien technology that had been deemed safe for use against non-human lifeforms.”

 “But what did it do?” April asked, horrified. “She looks like she’s going to die.”

 “As far as we can tell, it traps someone in particularly powerful or emotive memories, rendering them unconscious without running the risk of permanent damage. It has worked the same on every species tested against.”

 Caddie’s gaze caught both Tanya and Charlie’s quick steps away from the prone teacher. Interesting.

 “It’s only supposed to last for a few minutes; long enough for us to restrain the unruly alien. Miss Quill showed unrivalled recovery time, and so I believe it acted as a cumulative effect. By my calculations, she should recover within half an hour to an hour.”

 “You use -this- to control people? That cannot be right.” Tanya said outraged. Caddie secretly agreed with her, but she really couldn’t admit that.

 “It is the only technique we have so far that effectively immobilises any alien long enough to subdue them. It was this, or use dangerously high voltage shock guns. And in fairness, I have never seen such adverse effects as this. But she  _will_  be fine once she wakes up.”

 Wow, Caddie. You sounded real sure there.

 The group slowly split into smaller groups. Caddie returned to sit close by Quill. She was drawn to the confusing alien woman, and her guilt at inflicting the pain on her face weighed on her. In the quiet, she tried to decipher the words and phrases that jerked through Quill’s lips. It was unlike any human language, but she had heard similar in her UNIT training.

 She checked the other inhabitants of the truck periodically, paying particular attention of the other alien. He and Matteusz were sitting closely together, murmuring quietly to each other. April and Ram were holding hands, although the girl seemed like she was coping significantly better than the boy.

 Tanya was closest to Caddie, and like the soldier, she was watching Quill. There was a certain amount of worry in her gaze, and while she had seen plenty of dislike levelled towards the teacher over the past few days, she was sure she could detect a certain degree of hero worship in the younger girl’s eye. She bit back a small smile at that.

 Tanya appeared to be listening as closely as Caddie to Quill’s mutterings, with as much success in deciphering them. Once, the alien gasped something audibly, and Tanya asked Charlie if he could understand it. The Rhodian- who Caddie noticed had positioned himself as far from Quill as possible- stiffened and looked from the group.

 He was definitely reluctant to answer, and he seemed almost… ashamed?

 “The name of her partner. He died in the battle she was captured in, I heard.”

 Caddie had suspected something along those lines from their earlier conversations, but she didn’t understand the way it affected the entirety of the truck. The other teenagers looked away from Charles, despite the pain in his voice. Caddie was getting pretty desperate to understand what was going on here.

 Unfortunately for her, no one spoke again until the unconscious alien awoke, about half an hour later.

 Quill’s eyes snapped open and she drew in a gasping breath. Her eyes span wildly as she examined her new surroundings, not seeming to recognize anything. She was on her feet in a flash, snapping her cuffs without a second thought. Caddie internally winced at the damage but leapt up to explain as fast as she could (the accounts she had read indicated the subject would be very disorientated).

 She positioned her entire body in front of the alien. Clearly, she had far superior strength to even that which she had shown in their fight. Caddie had very little chance of restraining her if she had to, but there were guards barely a meter away ready to respond if she called out. She stared into the alien’s eyes and continued her stream of explanation.

 Quill was hugely agitated and appeared not to even see Caddie standing in front of her. Instead, her eyes latched onto Charlie, and before Caddie had even registered the movement, Caddie was on the floor and Quill was at the other side of the truck with her hands around his neck.

  _Fuck, there was no indication that the aliens were a danger to each other. If one of them died in transport, I am so screwed…_

 Even as Caddie rushed between them, the boy’s strangled cry as he scrambled away was dwarfed by Quill’s own shriek of pain as she collapsed to the floor of the truck, clutching at her head.

 “Quill? Can you talk to me? Do you know where you are?” Caddie crouched next to the woman, beyond confused but desperate to regain control over the situation.

 There was a long pause; Quill slowly looked up. Caddie was relieved to see some of the tension fall from her frame.

 “I was- back there. On Rhodia,” she whispered painfully. Her gaze flickered up to Charlie, who was flat against the doors of the truck. Matteusz was standing in front of him protectively. The others hadn’t even moved yet.

 “You are on Earth,” Matteusz said cautiously but gently. “The Doctor brought you here, remember?”

 _The Doctor?_ Kate was going to be all over this if the Doctor was involved. That might just work in Caddie's favour.

 Understanding slowly filtered into Quill’s gaze as she stared at Matteusz, who met her eyes calmly, despite the fear in his posture.

 She gave him a brief nod before standing and looking around her. Her surprise at Caddie confirmed her suspicions that the alien hadn’t even seen her earlier.

 “What the  _hell_  did you do to me?” She whispered dangerously.

 “Miss Quill. Your refusal to cooperate with UNIT meant that I had to use the only means at our disposal to subdue you. This is a Mondasian device that entraps a subject in a powerful memory for several minutes. Unfortunately, its effects were prolonged on you.”

 Quill’s face was white, and for a moment Caddie was sure she was going to punch her.

 “What are we doing here? Where are we going?”

 Okay, she was taking it quite well, initial murderous desires aside.

 “You have all been placed under arrest on suspicion of alien terrorism.”

 “Even -him?”, she asked between gritted teeth, waving her hand in the direction of the front of the truck.

 “Even Charles, yes.”

 “Great.” The blonde smiled ferally then, and before she could block it, she punched Caddie unconscious.

 

-_-_-_-_-_

 

 Quill wanted to scream. She wanted to kick and punch and rip and render and hurt and kill and conquer. Most of all, she wanted to grab the insufferable prince’s neck between her hands and this time keep squeezing until she watched the lights go out of his eyes. She might mutilate him a bit first, too.

Unfortunately, she could do very few of those things. She had to contend with punching that bitch who had fucking forced her into those memories. Luckily the arn viewed Charles’ arrest as a direct threat.

 She was incredibly disorientated. She felt like she had just been arrested by the Rhodians; like her lover and friends and soldiers had been murdered only moments ago. Every emotion was in turmoil, but enough of her logic remained to know that she seriously needed to focus.

 Not to mention, the arn was forcing its poison-tipped claws into her brain with the force of a clamp. Reorienting herself was made so much harder by the fact she could barely think through the pain blitzing through her head. She staggered, senses overloaded. Nausea curled in her stomach, but she fought it down.  

 She let out a scream and punched the side of the truck with all her force. Her knuckles split open but she couldn’t feel the pain over the agony in her head. Her heart was pounding right through her brain and her blood lust was coursing through her like never before.

 She smashed her fists into the side of the truck again and again, trying to force herself into the now and push those memories down where they belonged. Every time the image of her lover, hand stretched out for her help, flickered in front of her eyes, she drove her knuckles into the metal side of the truck. The pain of her hands was incomparable to the agony that trying to kill Charles had caused.

 Absently, she could hear the infernal twittering of the children, gathered on the other side of the truck. She let out a roar of aggression and continued decorating the APC.

 She didn’t know how long she had been punching out her aggression (probably only for a few minutes) until she dimly registered the soldier grabbing at her shoulder and bellowing her name. She staggered backwards, mentally admiring the impressive damage spread across the reinforced walls.

 She reached her hand up to wipe the sweat from her brow, but reconsidered when she saw the bloody mess she had made of her knuckles.

 “Quill!! What the hell are you doing?” Cadwallader practically screamed in her face. She had an impressive bruise blooming across her right cheek. She held up a hand towards the front of the truck, and Quill suddenly registered that the vehicle had stopped and three new soldiers had streamed in to point their ridiculous guns at her. Like that would stop her making literal mincemeat of them.

 She slumped down onto a portion of the bench that had not been destroyed, and leant back. She couldn’t help letting out a dry chuckle as she caught her breath. She had managed to fucking obliterate the armoured truck. Served UNIT right for arresting her, imprisoning her in her worst memories and then using sub-standard hand cuffs.

 But she felt grounded in the here and now. Those memories had been punched into submission, back deep inside where they belonged. The pain had only mildly abated, unfortunately. 

 “It was the truck or Charles,” she replied indifferently.  

 Speaking of the little shit, he was huddling with his friends in the furthest corner of the truck. Quill wasn’t sure how she felt about him. The absolute  _need_  to kill him had abated slightly since reawakening, but just the sight of him made all sorts of unwanted emotions rise up again. Not to mention, every spike of agony in her head was because of him.

 “I was going to order you to stop, but  _she_  stopped me,” he said sulkily.

 _Interesting._ It was because of the Inspector-turned-soldier that she hadn’t had to feel the arn -again, that is. And, as an added bonus, Caddie’s facial expression when she was mentioned by Charles mirrored Quill’s own when dealing with the little prince. Beating up a hunk of reinforced metal (and punching Cadwallader) had hugely improved her mood. The same could not be said for the aforementioned soldier.

 “What the hell was that?” Caddie cried incredulously. “I want a real answer Quill, not some bullshit.”

 “I had some stuff to work out. Mainly because of the shit you pulled.”

 “And so you take it out on one of our best alien containment trucks?”

 “That’s the best you can offer?” Quill asked sceptically.

 “It  _was_ ,” said Caddie exasperatedly, “until you smashed it to pieces! You realise I had to practically fight my officers not to shock you again when you started pulling that shit?”

 That got Quill’s attention.

 She quickly stood up and walked close to the woman, staring into her eyes and ignoring the soldiers jabbing their guns in her direction again. “Never use that on me again, soldier. Do you understand?”

 The woman narrowed her eyes at Quill, returning the glare. “Are you supposed to be intimidating me right now?  _I’ve arrested you_ , remember?”

 “Yeah, because  _that’s_ worked out marvellously for you, hasn’t it?” Quill continued to glower at her.

 "You're here, as is your- entourage."

 Quill snorted in disgust at the mention of the other children. "I am no such lamb as they are. Do not forget that, soldier, when you turn your back."

 "It's going to be hard to forget that since I'll probably carry this bruise to my deathbed."

 "I should have broken your face."

 "Yeah, should've, but didn't."

 That startled a laugh out of Quill. How long ago had it been since those same words had come from her mouth? She didn't reply, but broke the stare-off and sat back down onto the bench. 

 Caddie turned to the three soldiers whose bewildered expressions mirrored her own. “Return to your posts. Let’s get this journey over with,” she dismissed.

 Quill approved of the way they didn’t question her, immediately disappearing out of the door and the rumble of engines starting up again only moments later.

 Caddie turned back to Quill. “Do you think it's  _at all_  possible for you to refrain from physically harming anyone else for the remainder of the journey?”

 “Excuse me!” Quill scoffed, stretching on her seat. “You ridiculous humans came into my house with guns drawn and threatened me. How else was I supposed to respond?”

 “Yes, you’re right, it was a foolish idea to think that you might actually co-operate with a peaceful governmental force.”

 Right, that was it. The brief moment of respect had passed. Quill launched into the woman viciously. 

 “Peaceful? Seriously, you’re going to go with peaceful? Tell me, Inspector-soldier or whatever you are, have you ever felt the sting of your torture device?”

 The woman paused. “It’s not torture,” she responded quieter.

 “I thought not,” said Quill disgustedly. 

 "That doesn't explain why you attacked a member of your own party. If you present a legitimate threat to anyone in this vehicle, you will have to be restrained."

 " _Someone's_  got a bondage kink," Quill mocked.  "And  _he_  is not a member of my party."

 "You come from the same planet."

 "You share your planet with killers and dictators and criminals and mass murderers. Are they of your party? What about the cows and dogs? The insects beneath your feet? A shared planet means nothing."

 Quill became aware that the other members of the truck were watching their exchange avidly, Charles with a most insulted look upon his face. She didn't know why; she had never hidden the way she viewed all Rhodians. 

 “Agent Cadwallader?” a masculine voice rumbled through the doors.

 With one final glare towards Quill, the soldier turned and keyed some numbers into the keypad on the door, talking as she did.

 “I’m fine Kingston, everything’s under control. The Quill took issue with the wall of the truck and gave me an eye to rival James’, but nothing else. We’re coming out now.”

 The _Quill? How very rude._

 Things got very boring after that. Soldiers rushed in, escorted the prattling prepubescents away. One of them looked like he may have been present back at the house; there was a deeply pissed off look, and as he passed Quill, he spat, “alien bitch.”

 “Don’t you forget it,” she snarled back, flashing her teeth.

 There was a brief moment when they tried to take Charles away, but after she verbally eviscerated the now-trembling soldier, they were permitted to stay together. Surprisingly, the arn had receded enough to allow her full control over her extensive mental faculties. Did it recognise that she couldn’t protect _him_ enough with that torture in her mind?

 They were led to a dim room containing a table, three chairs, four cameras, and, rather unimaginatively, a wide mirror spanning one wall. Quill had just sat down, (Charles leaning against the wall in a fake relaxed pose. He was still terrified of her, to Quill’s utmost pleasure) when the door swung open and Caddie entered, holding a green bag.

 “How human are you?” She asked without preamble.

 “Who’s interested?” Quill purred inflammatorily. Sure enough, Caddie began to blush and an angry glint appeared in her eye.

 “Your knuckles need treating, if you want any hope of using your hand properly again.”

 Quill yawned pointedly, stretching her arms out in front of her and cracking her knuckles.

 “So do you have reinforced bone strength, or just no nerve endings?”

 “Why should I tell you?”

 “Maybe because I’m actually trying to help you; something I doubt you have people lining up to do.”

 “I don’t need help.”

 Caddie had clearly had enough of Quill’s shit, but she couldn’t help inflaming her even more. It was so entertaining.

 “Okay, so tell me something else. You led an army on your home planet. No, don’t respond,” she held up a hand, “I don’t want some smart-arse answer. If one of the soldiers in your regiment was injured and refused the treatment out of vanity or pride, what would you say to them?”

  _How dare she assume to know my life?_

 “It is not out of vanity or pride,” Quill retorted, insulted.

  _Although, the human’s meddling probably couldn’t hurt._

 “Bone strength,” she said after a beat. “We,” she gestured between her and Charlie, “are all alien except for our appearance, which is human.”

 “You’re like the Slitheen? You wear a human skin?” Caddie looked mildly revolted.

 Quill shook her head, disgusted. “As if I would debase myself like that. Goddess, humans are  _so_  stupid.”

 When she didn’t continue, Caddie turned to Charlie, who took over.

 “We had near humanoid shape back on our home planet. The Doctor just…” he paused to search for the right phrasing, “transformed our outer appearance to fit with Earth. It wouldn’t have worked if the species hadn’t shared key physiological similarities, and we retain certain different biological processes.”

_Oh, sure, go right ahead Charles. Tell her everything she wants to know. Why not invite her to join your ridiculous squad while you’re at it?_

 “So food, drink, common substances…?”

 “We’ve been adapted to survive off the usual Earth supplies, as well as retaining the ability to process several substances humans can’t.”

 “Alcohol?”

 “Oh, I’ve been very thorough in checking that,” Quill said innocently.

 Caddie gave an exasperated sigh as she sat down, straddling the chair backwards and retrieving several items from the green bag.

 “Hand.”

 “I am capable of tending to my own injuries.”

 “Who’s the trained medical professional here?”

 “When you’ve removed eleven pieces of radioactive shrapnel from your first lieutenant deep into enemy land with a broken arm, and then carried said lieutenant out without ripping a single stitch, you can talk about ‘trained medical professional’. You’re human; you’re limited by your species.”

 Caddie opened her mouth; closed it again, and shook her head. “I am not giving you free reign with a medical scalpel and rubbing alcohol.”

 “Good choice.” Quill said seriously. “It would be so easy to blind you, debilitate you, cut a hamstring, cut your throat- although that is terribly messy- or just jab it straight into your brain,” she spoke with relish.

 “Quill.” Charles said exasperated, annoyingly having gotten over his earlier fear.

 She bit back a snarl. “Oh, fine.” She laid her hands on the table, watching with interest as she poured the clear liquid onto a cotton pad and cleaned Quill’s knuckles with a gentleness that her character belied. “I must say, when I heard I was being arrested, I expected things to be a lot more  _Orange Is the New Black._ Never before Earth has my prison experience been  _boring._ ”

 “I’m sorry we haven’t lived up to your expectations.” Caddie carefully wiped her bloodied knuckles clean with the alcohol.

 “Ah, I guess I’ve just come to expect either unending torture, drugs or sex.”

 “I must have missed that ‘unending torture’ episode of  _Orange is the New Black.”_

 “That one was personal experience.”

 “Don’t exaggerate,” Charles said, making Caddie jump and spill the alcohol a little.  

 “Like you would know, warm and cosy up in your throne room,” Quill couldn’t help snarling at Charlie. Unhappy memories may be subdued for the time being, but the injustice would always burn in her; or, at least until she got justice for her people against both the Shadowkin and the Rhodians.

 “Your underlying bone structure appears to be absolutely fine,” Caddie interrupted Quill’s deadly stare, “which cannot be said for my  _incredibly expensive_ armoured truck.”

 When Quill just smirked at that, she continued. “Some of these cuts are deep; I think I can actually see the bone through them, but once they’re stitched they should be ok, with minimal scarring.”

 “Leave them.” Quill moved her hands away from Caddie. She didn’t know what it was- logically, she should accept the best medical treatment- but the mention of scars had hit a tender spot. She missed hers. They were symbols of everything she had gone through.

 She spoke before the other woman could question her.

 “Are you going to tell us what is going on yet?”

 “And where are my friends?” Charles prattled.

 Caddie gave Quill a look, probably meaning she wanted to discuss the scars thing. Oh yippee.

 “They’ve gone to give their statements, so we know how much the humans knows.”

  “Charles and I?”

 “Kate Stewart wants to talk to you, if you’ve had involvement with the Doctor.”

 “Overruled?” Quill asked mock-sympathetically. “Bet that rankles. Incidentally, did you say that was alcohol?”

 “ _Rubbing_  alcohol,” Caddie replied warily.

 “Perfect,” Quill replied, taking a sip from the bottle and smacking her lips.

 “You realise that could kill you?”

 “It could kill  _you_ , not me. I’m going to need something to make this process endurable.”

 Caddie opened her mouth to answer, but the door opened, a blonde woman walked in and the soldier jumped to attention.

 “At ease. Thank you for handling the situation so far, Lieutenant Cadwallander. I will take it from here.”

 “Yes ma’am,” Caddie nodded, collected the equipment (including the alcohol, Quill noted mournfully) and strode from the room. Quill watched her go with a slight disappointment before focusing on the new contender.

 “Yes?” She let the arrogance drip from her voice.

 “My name is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.” The woman nodded to the camera in the corner of the room. “This interview is now officially underway.”

 


	3. Five Interrogations and One Secret Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What it says on the tin, just a whole lotta chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really really really hope the interrogation lives up expectation!!! Also, sorry again for taking so long to update I WILL IMPROVE I PROMISE
> 
> Also thanks so much to Ellienerd14 / Bazwillendinflames for help :)

 

“My name is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.” The woman nodded to the camera in the corner of the room. “This interview is now officially underway.”

“Please state your name, species, planet of origin and age in Earth years or closest possible equivalent.”

“Charles Smith, Rhodian, originally of planet Rhodia. 17 Earth years old,” Charles spoke fairly calmly all things considered, but Quill guessed all that royal training had to come in useful some time.

She nodded and looked to Quill.

Quill didn’t take orders from people she didn’t know. However, there was the small matter of it being quite hard to gain revenge on the Shadowkin if she were arrested, or killed. They had been arrested for terrorism, after all, which most planets didn’t like.

“Andra’ath, now Andrea-” she let her voice sour on the human name- “Quill. Of the species Quill, planet Rhodia. Probably around thirty-five Earth years, but I can’t be sure.”

“Our records of your species indicate the Rhodians as a harsh, academically driven race, and the Quill as a warrior race with cannibalistic tendencies.”

Neither aliens reacted well to Kate’s unimpressed statement.

“We are _not_ cannibals-” 

“My people are not harsh, we are highly cultured and learned-”

“-while the consuming of the mother corpse is not technically necessary, you can’t begin to understand the pressure tradition-”

“-our way of life is just and driven by a strict moral code,”

“What?” Quill halted in her defence of Quill traditions. “Moral code? Moral, as long as it’s not done to the Rhodians?”

“You ate your mother, and murdered your siblings as children, I don’t think you can talk to me about morals,” Charles replied frostily.

“It was not murder! We fought to train for the war you forced us into!”

“Excuse me,” Kate interrupted coolly. “Do you think we could stay on track?”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“This interview is now underway. Please can you state your name and age for the record.”

“You clearly know both those pieces of information already.”

“It’s for the record, Miss Maclean.”

“The record needs to hear me state two pieces of information that will appear whenever anyone actually opens this file?”

“Yes,” April’s interrogator answered wearily.

April sniffed primly. “April Maclean; 17 years old.”

“How would you describe your relationship with Miss Quill and Mr Smith?”

“Miss Quill is my Physics teacher. Charlie is a classmate.”

“Is that the extent of your relationship?” The woman probed gently.

“What exactly are you trying to insinuate?”

“I am not insinuating anything, merely asking.”

“Charlie and I are friends. Sorry if that doesn’t tick your heteronormative box.”

“Miss Maclean, we’re just trying to establish some base facts. Have you known the two long?”

“I’ve known them since they joined my school. That was on the… fifth of September.”

“You have a very good memory.”

“Not at all,” April shrugged, “I read the date off the reflection of your tablet in the mirror.”

The woman flushed and tilted the tablet protectively away.

“Do you know anything of their past before moving to London?”

“No.”

“Miss Maclean, you really aren’t helping yourself or your friends here.”

“Actually, what you meant is I’m not helping you here.”

The woman sighed. “Do you know anything of their past before moving here?”

“No.”

“April, I’m trying to help you but I really can’t unless you give me more information.”

“I can’t give information I don’t have.”

“Have you noticed anything unusual about the pair since they arrived?”

“No.”

“April…”

“It’s Miss Maclean, actually.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“Please explain how and why you now reside on Earth.”

Quill snorted. “It wasn’t choice that led us here, that’s for sure.”

Charles’ diplomatic training took over before Quill’s childishness continued.

“Our planet was invaded by a race named the Shadowkin. They massacred our two races within a single day; we survived simply long enough to be rescued.”

“By the Doctor?”

“Yes,” Charles nodded. “He changed our form to resemble humans and gave us Earth identities. I believe he chose Earth because of the similarities in planetary culture and physiological form.”

“And is that the extent of your interactions with the Doctor?” Kate asked, making quick notes on her tablet.

“The enemy that invaded our world- the Shadowkin- followed us here through a rift in time and space at Coal Hill. Their King, Corakinus-”

Quill was remarkably not fond of April Maclean, but she was also not going to hand over her secrets to this shadowy organisation. And she wasn’t going to let Charles do it accidentally, either.

“Corakinus killed two students at Coal Hill,” she interrupted Charles roughly, pretending it was passion that prompted her. “And would have killed more if the Doctor hadn’t helped to banish them. Seems like something a, what was it, ‘Unified Nations Intelligence Taskforce’ should have been all over.”

Lethbridge had stilled, shocked. “Students died at the hands of these aliens?”

Well, _that_ got a reaction. Finally. This Kate woman did have a heart after all underneath that power suit and blonde bob, Quill thought.

“Kevin Williams is the first that we are aware of,” Quill said, ignoring the angry look Charles shot at her. “Followed by Rachel Chapman. Other humans include Frank Armitage, Tom Dawson, Carl Carroll and Pauline Volkovna, who were all killed due to other aliens accessing Earth though the rift.”

Charles’ angry look had changed to one of surprise. Quill continued to ignore him. Yes, she knew the names of everyone who had died at Coal Hill. She knew the names of a lot of dead people. A few more didn’t make a difference to her.

“Other aliens?”

“A dimension-hopping dragon, specifically. Just one of a tiresome brigade of strange.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-

 

“You can’t do this, you know! We have rights! Where’s your evidence? I demand freedom of information!”

“Miss Adeola, nothing is being kept from you. We detected energy transmissions coming from the Cabinet and found two suspicious persons, one of which was acting in a decidedly hostile manner.

Our attempts to talk with Miss Quill resulted in several injured agents and we were forced to arrest both Miss Quill and Mr Smith. You and I are here simply to establish the extent of your interactions with said persons, and then you’re free to go.”

“Free to go? Do you think I’m a fool? I’ve played enough video games to know things do not end well when a shadowy organisation wants to ‘talk’.” Tanya jabbed her finger for emphasis.

“Really, Miss Adeola, I just need you to answer a few questions for the record-”

“Record! Don’t make me laugh. I know UNIT, I’ve investigated you, and there is no _record_! It’s all secrets and lies!”

The pasty man in front of her sighed. It was not the first sigh he had uttered in the presence of Miss Adeola. He suspected it would not be the last.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“Both Chapman and Williams are reported missing, Chapman last seen with a Mr. Singh, who I believe is also in our company.

However, we have a marriage certificate placing Dawson and Carrol in Scotland together, Volkovna’s last credit card purchase was a flight home to Russia and Armitage is on record as having transferred schools.”

“I had to throw his skin into a skip.”

“Miss Quill-”

“What? Should I have put it into the recycling?”

“People have died, Miss Quill. Would it be too much to ask for a respectful tone?”

“Should I have put it into a bin liner first? Would that have been more respectful?”

“Quill,” Charles spoke a warning, to her highest annoyance.

“Charles,” she mimicked. “It’s not my fault their agency fails at the one thing they’re supposed to do. Have you seen the memorial board? Looks like a pattern that goes back a pretty long time.”

“We have records that indicate four of the six possible missing people are still alive,” Kate spoke through gritted teeth.

“I. Slopped. His. Skin. Into. A. Bin. The only education he’s providing is whether human skin can be recycled with paper.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“Mr Andrzejewski, are you aware of Mr Smith and Miss Quill’s true identity?”

“What does this mean, true identity?”

“Who they are,” Matteusz’s interrogated elaborated.

“What makes us who we are?” Matteusz wondered philosophically. “Our interests? Our passions? I know Charlie loves Art; I know Miss Quill loves coffee-”

“No no, not that sort of identity-”

“Do you mean gender identity? Of course, it is all a spectrum but-”

“Not gender identity! I mean their- race.”

“Britain is so concerned with race. I am Polish; you know how much racism I deal with every day? How much xenophobia? I would never define my friends by their race.”

“We are not talking about racism-” the woman sighed.

“And this is the problem! Not enough people are willing to talk about it.”

“Not like that, I mean right at this moment we are not talking about it.”

“Is never a good time to talk about racism for you people,” Matteusz muttered inflammatorily.

“Can we get back to Miss Quill and Mr Smith?” The interrogator mustered a fake smile.

“I am always happy to talk about my boyfriend. What would you like to discuss?”

“Have you noticed anything unusual in Mr Smith or Miss Quill’s behaviour?”        

“What does this mean, ‘unusual’?”

“It’s fairly self-explanatory, Mr Andrzejewski.”

“We live in an age where ‘normal’ and ‘usual’ have very wide boundaries.”

“Please answer the question, Mr Andrzejewski!”

“I think you would define Miss Quill as very unusual.”

“Thank you.” The woman let out a breath at having finally gained some ground. “Could you expand on that?”

“She is not afraid to say what she means. In this world, that is very unusual. Clearly, it is also very unusual at UNIT too.”

“Sorry?”

“Quill says what she means. You have not said a single clear thing since you asked my name.”

His interrogator blinked, clearly mentally deciding not to even touch that. “Is that the extent of Miss Quill’s unusualness?”

“She can be very mean too. But that is not so unusual anymore.”

“Mr Andrzejewski, I think you are purposefully misunderstanding me.”

“Perhaps you are just not being clear in your questions.”

“Fine,” the fraught woman bit out. “Mr Andrzejewski, did you know that Mr Smith and Miss Quill are aliens?”

“Yes. You arrested them on suspicion of alien terrorism. I think that makes them aliens, no?”

“Before that,” she nearly wailed.

“Yes.”

“And you did not think to alert the authorities?”

“The authorities are aliens too.”

Panic crossed the woman’s face. “We have no record of alien members in the Shoreditch area police force-”

“To you they are not aliens. To me they are.”

The woman was stumped for a moment.

“When you say alien, you mean…?”

“Belonging to a foreign country, of course. What else could I mean?”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“So these four alien races, the Dragon, the Lankin, the Shadowkin and the carnivorous petals, are the only ones to have gained access through the rift?”

If Quill had been feeling more merciful, she would have given the other woman points for managing that list with a completely straight face. Unfortunately, she wasn’t.

“That we know of. Any rogue alien could’ve snuck through and disappeared into the wider Shoreditch area without us noticing.”

Kate’s mouth tightened but didn’t rise to the bait.

“I mean, it’s not like our only job on this planet is to monitor the alien presence, right?”

“Quill,” Charlie snapped.

“What, Charles? It’s their job to protect humanity from these threats! Every single person who has died because of that rift, their blood is on UNIT’s hands.”

Charles’ warning was warranted; she was trying to press every button Kate had. Quill knew about protecting those who needed it. These people hadn’t even tried.

“Thank you for that assessment, Miss Quill. Rest assured, this rift and every possible associated death will be thoroughly investigated,” Kate snapped, ice cold.

“Perhaps we should return to my assessment of whether you and your companion can remain on Earth, considering that you have admitted your presence here endangers humanity.”

“We endanger humanity? We’re the ones saving every student at that hellhole each month, while you UNIT people do fuck all-”

“Quill, stop talking!” Charlie barked.

Quill mentally let loose a tirade of Quill and human swearwords and insults as the arn dug in at Charles’ command. She restrained the reflex to grab her head in pain, and Charles’ neck in fury. She seethed the only way she could: silently, knuckles threatening to pop through her skin as she gripped the edge of the table.

“Please continue, Miss Stewart,” Charles said brusquely.

“What you have failed to mention, Mr Smith, Miss Quill, is why the Shadowkin followed you to Earth in the first place. Would it have anything to do with this,” she indicated a photo of the Cabinet on her tablet screen, “object we located in your home.”

“That is the reason the Shadowkin cited for following us,” he answered carefully.

“Our scientists believe it has huge energy capabilities, hence our initial suspicion of terrorism. All attempts to get inside have been unsuccessful. Why is that, Mr Smith?”

“It can only be opened by a- a member of the Rhodian religious order.”

“Return to the beginning. What exactly is ‘it’?”

If she’d been able to speak properly without agony ripping through her skull, Quill would have been tempted to shout, ‘it’s a bomb’ just to piss this woman off even more. As if she could hear her thoughts, the Kate woman shot Quill a warning glance.

“The Cabinet of Souls,” Charles said softly. “It is the centre of my people’s religion. We believe that it houses the soul of every Rhodian who has ever lived and died.”

“And does it?”

“No. It’s a children’s story told to comfort the dying.”

Lethbridge raised an eyebrow at his short answer.

“Why, then, can we detect so much energy inside?”

Quill tensed. It was definitely safer for UNIT to remain in the dark about the true nature of the Cabinet. If only she could fucking speak normally, then she could sort Charles’ shit show out. She glared at him meaningfully, restraining the murderous intent in her eyes, until he got the message.

“Quill, uh, you can answer this one,” he lifted the command clumsily. “You know the composition of the Cabinet better than I do,” he added limply on the end.

She focused her newly- freed voice on the subject with effort. “The Cabinet is an object that not only has been resident on an alien planet for the past millennia, but has travelled through the vortex. Your instruments will be picking up the atron energy from our trip here, if not mistaking any radiation from the alien materials. “

Lethbridge had watched their unusual exchange with sharp eyes. Quill mentally cursed Charles again, which of course, the arn took umbridge too, and she had to restrain a wince.

“Hm,” Lethbridge didn’t seem overly convinced but let it lie. “So why have the Shadowkin followed it to our world?”

“The legend of the Cabinet prophecies it can also be used as a weapon,” Charlie admitted reluctantly. “Each soul has the capacity to burn another out of existence.”

 

The blonde woman raised an eyebrow. Somehow that felt like her equivalent of an exclamation of shock.

“So you have had a weapon of mass destruction in your property since arriving on Earth, and you were surprised when we reacted with an armed force?”

“It’s not a weapon! It’s a religious artefact at the centre of my people’s beliefs! And anyway, why would we want to use a weapon against the people of Earth? We are looking for a new home!”

Charles was actually grabbing his hair now. Must’ve stolen the gesture from his boyfriend; he didn’t exactly grow up with any hair to grab.

“Several extra-terrestrials have come to Earth looking for new homes, usually with the idea of removing humanity and replacing with their race.”

“Our races are dead, you obstinate woman. Get that through your thick blonde head,” Quill snarled. She hadn’t forgotten Kate’s earlier slight to her race, despite it being technically true.

“It’s a bit counter-productive to insult blonde people when you are one,” Charles said in a side whisper.

“Shut up Charles!”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“Miss Adeola, please…”

“You know what it is? It’s the panopticon, the illusion that everything and everyone is being watched. Freedom of speech? Please. You give one little speech about feminism and suddenly you’re a man-hater and a misandrist. Is that in your file, hmm? I bet you’ve got every keystroke I’ve typed documented somewhere!”

“Miss Adeola, I really just need you to confirm how old you are.”

“Fight the patriarchy!”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“Miss Quill, Mr Smith. I have reviewed the evidence that prompted your arrests and I can say it seems we may have been slightly hasty. Please be assured the man responsible will be disciplined as soon as he is out of hospital.”

That drew a tiny smile out of Quill.

“However, you have raised several significant issues concerning the Shadowkin and the rift at Coal Hill, not to mention I am still not convinced about the Cabinet’s energy potential. Can you offer any reasons why I should not confiscate this Cabinet and place you two in custody, for the safety of both yourselves and the humans surrounding you?”

“The Doctor gave us a job to do,” Charles said regally, lifting his head.

“People around the Doctor often end up dead,” Kate said unimpressed. “I would quite like to minimise that effect on you and your friends next door.”

Charles’ head dropped down, and Kate nodded as she saw her words had hit home.

“Noble ideals are one thing; the death of your friends is another.”

Quill snorted, ruining the cinematic moment.

“You want a reason? I’ll give you two. Firstly, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that I will allow myself to be placed in ‘protective custody’.”

“Miss Quill, by your own words, the Shadowkin have wiped out two races, nearly killed you twice and murdered two students at Coal Hill. Not to mention the danger presented by the other aliens who use the rift as door to our planet.”

“Fine, get your scientists in to test the Bunghole. Close the school and fill it with agents ready to slap cuffs on the first alien to poke its head through. But I did not escape my planet to become a prisoner on another.”

“Protection is not imprisonment.”

“Look Lethbry or whatever your name is, I hate almost every part of my life. But it is still mine to live how I choose. Either _try_ ,” she stressed the word, “to detain me, or let me go back to teaching pubescent larvae Physics that’ll be disproved in fifty years.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“She teaches us Physics, but you can’t even call it teaching. She’s next-level mean with the work she sets, and the amount of homework. She doesn’t even mark half of it, just decides on what she thinks we would’ve got. It’s ridiculous she’s actually still allowed in a school, the way she treats us.”

“Even to you? You look like a favourite with the teachers,” the interrogator encouraged playfully. Ram flashed a grin automatically.

“Most of them, sure, but not Quill. She predicated me a D minus in my A Level physics! Do you know how many Unis won’t even look at an application if you aren’t predicted three As?

“So much pressure on young people these days,” the interrogator sighed.

“There really is. It’s so nice to find someone who understands,” Ram gestured at the slight young man opposite him. “It just doesn’t help having a bitch of a teacher underpredicting me at every moment.”

“But won’t your football help in your application? I see in your file that you are _highly_ skilled.”

“It’s true, I am... but sometimes I just want people to see me as more than just some football player. I’m clever too, you know? Not just some sporty jock with barely two braincells to rub together.”

His interviewer nodded sympathetically. “Of _course_ , Ram.”

“My dad’s great, he’s so supportive of my football, but he just doesn’t get that sometimes I want something more.”

“Totally…” murmured the interrogator.

“Especially now because I’m not playing as well as I used to and no one can understand why and it’s just so hard.”

“So hard,” he agreed throatily.

“Everyone else looks at me and just see pretty boy Ram, star of the football team. But April’s the first person I think who can actually see beyond that.”

“Uh hu… wait, April? You’re straig- you’re dating April Maclean?”

“Honestly, I don’t think dating is strong enough. I don’t know. I just get this feeling from her that I like her more than she likes me.”

“Mr Singh,” the young man gave a mournful sigh, “could we return to Mr Smith and Miss Quill?”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

The blonde woman flicked her eyes over Quill again, re-evaluating her. Quill didn’t like the feeling. She didn’t like the suspicion that she had revealed something about herself.

“You had two reasons?”

Quill smirked humourlessly. “I mowed through your soldiers like a scythe through chaff. I’m the best defensive you’ve got against the Shadowkin.”

“Interesting that you talk of yourself as defending. Our records are limited but Quill is a distinctly separate race to Rhodian, is it not?”

“You have no idea how insulting that question is,” Charles muttered.

“Miss Quill, why do you stay in a life you clearly hate in protection of a Rhodian religious artefact? If that is why you stay.”

Quill didn’t respond. It was a good question, to be fair.

“You claim to be together purely as the last two survivors of your planet, yet our agent at Coal Hill indicated a thorough dislike of integration into human culture. Why not go somewhere you would be happier, away from the, as you put it, ‘brigade of strange’ coming from the rift?”

Bloody hell, this woman was too perceptive for her own good.

“The Shadowkin killed my race. The Shadowkin come through the rift. To kill Shadowkin, I must stay by the rift. After that, I’ll be gone,” Quill said. There was enough truth in that to convince her, surely.

“That’s revenge, not justice.”

This woman was saying all those Doctor-isms. She had enough of them living with Charles.

“Your point?”

Kate inclined her head, a cold fire burning in her eyes that Quill hadn’t seen.

“Thank you, Miss Quill, Mr Smith, for your co-operation. This interview is now finished.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“Well, Miss Maclean, I can see this interview is going no-where. I can’t really thank you for co-operation, can I?”

“I answered every question you asked me.”

“With twenty-three questions and 12 straight ‘no’s.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“This interview is now at a close. Please don’t say anything more Mr. Andrzejewski, I don’t think I could cope with another of your philosophical questions.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“Well, Miss Adeola, this has been a fascinating insight into the conspiracy theories circulating today. I only wish you could have dialogued with as much information about Miss Quill and Mr Smith.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

“It was lovely to meet you, Mr Singh. Thank you for your co-operation, and I do hope things work out with football and University. And Miss Maclean of course. Of course. Her most of all. Young love is a beautiful thing.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

Caddie’s team was in fits of laughter as they watched the last interview wrap up.

“It must be admitted, these young are highly intellectual. Always in control,” Yi’9i stuttered out once they had all calmed down.

“Matteusz absolutely trussed poor Gail up with her own words. I must stop by later and make sure she is ok. She’s not used to such interrogations,” Kingston chuckled.

“They’re good kids,” Caddie nodded, smiling. She liked them, there was no denying it. They all demonstrated loyalty to Quill and Charlie, which earnt them points in her book, even if it made her job harder.

“You said April was nice in your report Caddie, she spoke the least out of all of them,” Kingston said.

“Adeola uttered the most words but did not mention Quill or Smith once. She did not appear overly intelligent, even if she is in the advanced classes” Yi’9i noted.

“Tanya’s not like that at all Yi, she put that stuff on completely. I was impressed at her conspiracy knowledge though, she span that out every time poor Wheatcroft opened his mouth.”

“Ram spoke a fair bit too, but poor Evans was too smitten to grill him,” Jamis shook his head fondly.

“I don’t know who chose these interviewers, but they messed up-”

“Caddie!” A breathless young soldier rushed through the door. “Brigadier Arya would like to see you in his office ASAP.”

As if staged, the words, “Cadwallader! Get in here!”, echoed down the corridor to the A/V room Caddie’s squad were amusing themselves in.

“Shit,” Caddie moaned under her breath before bidding Kingston and her team goodbye. As she walked up the corridor, she caught a glimpse of Campbell’s grinning face and resisted the urge to punch him.

“Sir.” Caddie greeted in the office. The man sat behind a desk shot her a baleful look.

“Close the door Cadwallader.”

She did, and turned back to him, standing at attention as he glowered at her.

The silence deepened, but Caddie didn’t speak. She knew that he didn’t want to hear what she had to say, and she wasn’t going to make it any easier.

Vinay finally broke the quiet.

“Tell me, Cadwallader, do you know protocol? Have you actually read the roles involved with your new promotion?”

When she didn’t say anything, the man ploughed on, growing in animation. “Why in God’s name did you think that transporting a hostile alone was a good idea? Is this your ego? You may be undefeated in the squad training sessions but that means nothing- _nothing-_ here!”

“Well? Are you going to say anything?” he pushed as she continued to stare over his left shoulder, unperturbed.

“You know why I acted the way I did, sir.”

“What?”

“You asked me why I acted as I did, sir.”

“Okay, cut the goddamn ‘sir’, Caddie, and stop spinning bullshit.”

She looked meaningfully at the door and he irritably searched his drawers until he located a small remote. Pressing a button on it, he raised his hands. “Well?”

“This is the best in to Coal Hill Academy we’ve had in the past year, Vinay.”

“You still didn’t need to put yourself in that position-”

“I did, and you know that,” she let some of her irritation creep into her voice.

“The attack on Davies’ soldiers is technically self- defence. Her fighting prowess and proximity to the… cabinet, I think it’s being called- still wasn’t enough. An attack on UNIT personnel on top of all that was the only way to ensure extended surveillance.”

When the slight Asian man in front of her just continued to glower, she sighed.

“Vinay. You know I need to do this. We’ve been running this for a year, and we have barely anything to show for it.”

“The files-”

“We’ve uncovered the buried files- so what? We’re still no closer to understanding how or why those kids died, what the Governors are doing there, and how much of UNIT is hiding them. You’re still demoted and…” she swallowed, “Jamie’s still in hiding.”

His anger fading, Vinay grasped her hands. “Caddie. I know how important this it. I’m sorry. It’s just,” his words failed him. “Losing Mila and Aaron like that…”

Caddie squeezed the aging man’s hands at the mention of her parents. “I know. That’s why Quill is so important. She’s the in.”

He briskly cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. She let go of his hands, understanding they were moving past the emotions. “You want me to send you as the agent.”

She nodded. “Kingston can take over as Head of Alien Interaction.”

It hurt, to willingly put up the position she had worked so hard for. But it had to be done.

“It’ll look to everyone like a suspension period while you review my behaviour today. Lethbridge's already interviewed Quill, so the Governors have no chance of brushing this under the carpet.”

Vinay had understood her actions as soon as he had heard them, they both knew, but he was still loath to send her into such direct danger. She could see the worry in his eyes, but he was still a soldier, one of the most decorated in UNIT. He understood about making the hard decisions.

He sighed in resignation. “There’s a secondary pack waiting in your room containing the most secure surveillance technologies I could get my hands on at such short notice.”

Caddie restrained a small smile. Vinay had known exactly her plans before she even walked in here.

“Use it for anything concerning the Governors. Any other alien investigations, use the normal pack. I don’t want any questions asked about why and how you have that tech.”

She nodded her understanding.

Vinay looked at her. “Don’t be stupid. Get it done, and get back to UNIT.” With that, he picked up the small remote again and deactivated the sound lock.

The familiarity between the two soldiers dropped with the soundlock and Vinay began barking his instructions.

“I’ve briefly looked at the initial notes of the Cabinet. It appears to be a high-energy object with possible potential for weaponizing. You are to maintain testing of this item throughout the extended surveillance as well as noting the interactions and personalities of the two aliens. Any information you can gather on the physiology and culture of both races will also benefit UNIT’s alien database.

You will be sent in for a three-month initial period to investigate the possible terrorist activities of these two aliens. I want regular reports every week and expect a physical conversation every other week in my office. Kingston will take over your squad during this period while I review your actions today and decide whether I can reinstate you.

A rift has been detected at Coal Hill, and Commander Stewart is sending a team of scientists to investigate it.”

Now _that_ came as a surprise to Caddie. She hadn’t seen any evidence of a rift during her week-long stint at the school – but then again, she hadn’t been looking for it either.

“Your position at the school has been cemented as government-required extended observation of the teachers, so you will also provide security for the other UNIT agents.

While it is not protocol, residency has been secured for you in the aliens’ home. The little intelligence we have of both races suggest that they could fairly easily avoid our usual surveillance strategies, and so new protocols have been implemented. There’s more information in your pack. Please be prepared to leave by 1800 hours.”

He nodded sharply to Caddie, who took herself to be dismissed and left.

She forced herself to stride confidently along the corridors. Her plan was solid, she knew. The knowledge wasn’t going to make saying goodbye to her squad any easier.

She had handpicked them all herself, an indiscriminative mix of alien and human alike. They would be fine without her; Kingston was almost as good of a leader as she was. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to miss them, though.

She returned to her rooms and packed efficiently, hiding Vinay’s pack at the bottom of her rucksack. A quick trip to the medical team for an update on various alien disease vaccinations, a stop off at Intelligence for the latest information on the two aliens and a brief pause to grab the necessary arms (including the distasteful Mondasion device that had affected the Quill so badly) and she was practically ready to go.

She found her team in their specially-designated training rooms and said her goodbyes. She didn’t linger; she didn’t want to embarrass herself. Kingston, Jamis and Yi’9i insisted on walking with her to the departure point.

The hangar still held Caddie’s battered armoured carrier and she couldn’t help wincing at the damage. The alien who had caused it was being led into a discreet vehicle a little ways from Caddie. She could hear the blonde’s vocal complaints from where she was standing, causing another wince.

Yi’9i emitted a humorous gurgle, and Kingston chuckled.

“Try to stay sane, living with those two, okay?”

 

“Stay sane? This assignment’s a holiday! You’re the one who’ll need to hold on to your sanity. Three months dealing with Iris and Wagner’s competitions, stopping Jamis from sending entire units to sleep-”

“That was once, and I do not appreciate you bringing it up.”

“And keeping Yi’9i from-”

Her words were cut short as Jamis and Yi’9i drew her into a hug.

Shit, there was moisture in her eyes. Scary, undefeatable alien-leading Lieutenants did not cry at goodbyes. Even if it could be their last one with the people closest too them.

“Alright guys,” she laughed, patting them on their backs. “My new assignment awaits. And don’t worry, I’ll be round here all the time.

The two aliens withdrew, smiling. Kingston stood to attention, the others following suit. She nodded at each in turn, found she couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat, and decisively walked away to join the other alien in the hanger, who had been watching the whole interaction.

Caddie wondered if she was going to launch another verbal attack at her, as was their usual interaction over the past week. She wasn’t sure she had it in her to respond in like.

Instead, the Quill just nodded sharply and got into the car, leaving Caddie astonished.

But, in honestly, the solider was just too tired to think it over. It had been, by all standards, a very long and exhausting day. Her face still ached from where the alien had punched it, her shoulder was prickling from the vaccinations and finally progressing closer to the Governors had her on edge.

It was time to go home- whatever her new home was like.

 


End file.
